University of Hawaii evaluates data-leak prevention

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (Thursday, November 04, 2010) | Category : Email security

The University of Hawaii recently announced it has launched a full investigation into its data-leak prevention practices to avoid future breaches similar to the recent incident that exposed the personal information of more than 40,000 alumni.

The school said it has developed a new data-leak prevention method and has set up a website with answers to frequently asked data security questions. Still, the Liberty Coalition, which uncovered the data breach, said the incident wouldn't have happened if UH used proper data-leak prevention from the start.

"I can't speculate as to why it was not looked at earlier. However, that is something we are looking at right now," said Ryan Mielke, a spokesperson for the university system's West Oahu campus.

UH's most recent data breach occurred when a professor mistakenly uploaded alumni information to an unencrypted server. The professor, who retired in the summer, was using the data to conduct research on the success rates of students, according to Hawaii News Now. The Liberty Coalition said it uncovered the breach with a simple Google search of the term "SSN."