Sumter campus leak shows flaws of current system
USC Sumter discovered a massive security breach in January that exposed the personal information, including social security numbers, of around 31,000 faculty, staff and students across the USC System.
USC mailed more than 13,000 letters to those possibly affected on February 10, said Bill Hogue, USC’s vice president for information technology. Hogue said additional letters were sent as information was analyzed and compiled.
So far, USC doesn’t know of anyone who has been negatively affected, and Hogue said he didn’t know how many USC Columbia students in particular were exposed. USC has only said that the breach was caused by human error, and Hogue said that “appropriate disciplinary steps have been taken by the leadership at USC Sumter.”
To prevent another such breach, Hogue said that data trustees are reviewing all data access and retention policies and procedures, nationally recognized external information technology resources have been retained for assistance, an ongoing user education program will be intensified and the OneCarolina project is continuing on schedule.
According to the project’s website, OneCarolina is USC’s “multi-year initiative to replace its outdated administrative computing applications, including Student Information Systems, Finance, Sponsored Programs and Human Resources into one easily-accessible, Web-based system.”
Implementation of OneCarolina began in 2009 and will continue through 2014. USC’s current information technology infrastructure has been criticized as being hard to use and open to risk. According its website, OneCarolina will eventually replace VIP and offer more services than currently available.