Privacy Breach Hits School District Website

CORONA (CBS) — The names and social security numbers of over 80 teachers and administrators were accidentally published on the Corona-Norco Unified School District's website, but the leak was quickly fixed, according to reports on Saturday.

A privacy activist found the numbers and called the district, which reportedly
yanked the data from the web within minutes, the Riverside Press-Enterprise
said.

Aaron Titus, the information privacy director of the Liberty Coalition, based in Washington, D.C., says he found the list Aug. 31 using Google as part of his volunteer work for the organization.

A copy of the page remains archived on Google docs, although it is inaccessible unless the user knows the exact web address, the Press Enterprise reported today.

Michael Lin, the assistant superintendent of human resources, says he's trying
to get Google to remove that copy, too.

The person responsible for posting the information, part of a credential status report, is unknown, Lin says, but the district fixed the problem permanently by changing its default computer settings to exclude social security numbers from these reports.

Norco High School teacher Jen Varney was "stunned" when she found out her information was on the list, it was reported. She arranged to take half a day off work to talk to a credit reporting agency and her bank about potentialproblems that may come from the information breach.

"I've been a victim of ID theft from this exact thing before," she said, referring to a time a college accidentally posted her social security number. "I know the headache."