Following HIS Lead

got a little story for ya ags...

Everybody says change is a good thing right? Well, I would say yes, except if you are an 100 yr old university.
So when computers, record filing and admissons programing got big, ECU customized their own program, ECUMVS to meet all their computing needs, then they created the onestop.ecu.edu to meet the needs of expanding technology to accomadate registration, parking permits & forms of online paymen, etc.....well, in 2006, the wonderful administration at ECU decided that everything was outdated and we're moving to a new system...BANNER. All we as students and faculty heard all fall semester was how wonderful Banner is, how easy, and efficient and amazing Banner is, Banner is going to revolutionize the campus-all we need is Banner...yeah yeah yeah.

So January rolls around, slowly and gradually systems are being edited, redisgned and changed to run under Banner (and nobody is jumping for joy) The general consensus at least in our offices is that "we hate Banner" and heres the great climax of my story: guess what happens...security breach!
yes the world had access to over 65,000 persons personal data- here's a snippet of from the press release sent out almost 3 weeks AFTER it happened.

"It was a result of making a series of modifications to our systems to transition away from the use of Social Security numbers as unique identifiers on a portal on our web site that allows staff and students to perform a number of tasks such as purchase parking permits, check course availability and examine job openings.”

Personally identifiable data was potentially accessible by unauthorized users from Jan. 22 through Jan. 29, officials said. It included names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Credit card numbers for 21 individuals are believed to have been viewed, and those persons are being notified by telephone in addition to receiving letters.

Other information, such as parking data, automobile insurance information, job applicant data for faculty and administrator positions, student judicial incident reports, student housing records and graduate program application information, also was possibly viewed.

The vulnerability was discovered when an ECU student, who had been using the portal, unintentionally viewed a screen that contained names and other information. He reported the
situation to university police and the web site was secured within 15 minutes of
the initial report.

That means my info was possibly available to the world for a week straight...unbelievable...Banner is awesome! Luckily, I have not been contacted, nor have received the aformentioned letter, but I will be keeping a close eye on things. I'm reminded of those citibank commericials..ya know the one where like an old lady is talking but really shes a man lifting weights because of identity theft..anyways.

Thanks & gig'em Banner! [sarcasm included]