http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/10/21/personal-information-of-almost-100000-people-exposed-through-flaw-on-site-for-transcripts/
By Ashkan Soltani, Julie Tate and Ellen Nakashima
The Washington Post
October 21, 2014
The personal information of almost 100,000 people seeking their high
school transcripts was recently exposed on a Web site that helps students
obtain their records.
The site, NeedMyTranscript.com, facilitates requests from all 50 states
and covers more than 18,000 high schools around the country, according to
its Web site and company chief executive officer.
The data included names, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, dates
of birth, mothers' maiden names and the last four digits of the users'
Social Security numbers. Although there is no evidence the data were
stolen, privacy advocates say the availability of such basic personal
information heightens the risk of identity theft.
The availability of the data appears to be the result of a flaw in the way
the two-year-old site was designed. It highlights how easily sensitive
personal information can be exposed with the proliferation of online
businesses and services - many of which do not employ adequate security
practices.
[...]
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