Volunteer State Community College Data Breach (2008)

Some 14,000 Volunteer State Community College students and faculty are being notified that some of their personal data was placed on a web server. Based on a review of server logs, it is unlikely that the files have been accessed since 2008, outside of college personnel. Although it’s possible that this data could have been accessed by unauthorized individuals on the web, campus officials say they have no direct evidence that it has been discovered or used by anyone maliciously. There was no credit card or financial information in these files. This is not the main web server, but one where a course instructor would typically post course syllabi and other relevant academic information. A very limited number of faculty files were involved. The files contained names and Social Security numbers. The files were immediately removed from the web server. We want to reiterate that this information was not placed on Vol State’s main site, www.volstate.edu. The server in question has been removed from the web. We believe that most of the affected students are former students. Some of our instructors serve as an adjunct instructor at other institutions, so some information posted included a limited number of students attending other institutions.