Stanford University server exposes data of 10,000 staffers

President Zach Olsen talks to SC Magazine‘s Robert Abel about the recently reported exposure of Stanford University student and staff data:

Infinite Global President Zach Olsen said these events happen every day at institutions and organizations around the world and the only way to reduce the chance of repeating these organizations shortcomings is to take steps to prevent unforced errors like the one at Stanford. He said the school needs to start thinking about regaining the trust lost in these incidents.

“How will very obvious lapses in security be prevented in the future and in addition to that, what systems will the university employ to fend off malicious attacks as well?, Olsen said. “There must be a conversation, started and led by the university, about how to recover from this.”

He added that the biggest challenge from a communications perspective is helping students and faculty understand why the university didn’t protect the information that is entrusted and regaining their trust.

Olsen said it’s necessary to train all staff, not just not just those in the IT departments, on best practices and ensure they understand that human error, not teams of malicious Eastern European hackers, is to blame for the majority of breaches.

Read the whole article here.