Columbia Housing & Dining SSN Security Breach

To:  Columbia University Housing and Dining

We recall that last year, April 17th, 2007, Lisa Hogarty, EVP of Student and Administrative Services, wrote to the Columbia community in order to alert us that Housing and Dining had learned "that three archival database files containing the housing information of some current and former students" had been "inadvertently placed on a Columbia web server."

Last year, by the error of your department, many Social Security Numbers were placed on public view on the internet. Last year, your department neglected to inform the Columbia community of its plans for protecting the identities of my 5,000 fellow Columbia students.

Your desire to protect students' information is above question. However, it seems necessary at this time to request two guarantees in addition to those you have already outlined in your email. The first is that Housing and Dining properly investigate the former employee who posted this information online, and disclose any information obtained through this investigation that may lawfully be disclosed. The second is that you write a report detailing the steps Housing and Dining will take to screen employees for their ability to hold private information in confidence and to ensure, through training or supervision, that this sensitive information is handled discreetly.

We hope that you will address these concerns publicly and without delay, offering the whole of your consideration to resolve this serious matter.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Columbia Housing & Dining SSN Security Breach Petition to Columbia University Housing and Dining was created by Columbia University and written by John Smith (bwog@columbia.edu).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.