{"id":30606,"date":"2013-02-19T20:24:48","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T01:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2022-08-26T14:20:21","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T18:20:21","slug":"school-kids-data-at-risk-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/school-kids-data-at-risk-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"School Kids’ Data at Risk – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"School<\/a>In the Huffington Post<\/a><\/em> article, “In Push For Data, Schools Expose Students To Identity Theft<\/span><\/a>” author Gerry Smith<\/a> writes about the growing risk of school kids data being stolen across the country.<\/p>\n

Read Part One here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/a>Data Quality Campaign<\/a>, an organization that encourages states to build student databases<\/strong> argues that students’ Social Security numbers<\/a><\/strong> are useful for education policy by creating “enhanced analytical opportunities<\/strong>” for evaluating school curriculum. “The more important conversation is not whether states are collecting Social Security numbers, but how they are ensuring the privacy, security, and confidentiality of all personally identifiable information,” Laird said in a statement to the Huff Post.<\/em> “We can’t speak to how Social Security numbers are collected and stored at the local level,” she added.<\/p>\n

The article cites one survey that concludes student PII<\/a> is not stored very securely<\/strong>. Only half of K-12 schools use data encryption, according to a survey of IT employees at K-12 schools nationwide. 72% cited budget constraints as the primary barrier to improving their IT security<\/a>, according to the survey by Panda Security<\/a> (PDF). Collecting PII in central databases with lackluster security is asking or trouble, “This is making a much bigger honey pot for people with malevolent purposes to gain access to children’s information,” Joel Reidenberg, a professor at Fordham University School of Law. He told The ID Channel<\/em><\/a>, “It’s a meltdown waiting to happen.”<\/p>\n

School districts in 26 states now ask for students’ Social Security numbers. The Michigan<\/a> Department of Education<\/a> states<\/a> (PDF), “A school district cannot mandate that parents disclose the social security number of their children.” Huff Post<\/em> states that Texas<\/a> is one of those states where education officials use PII<\/strong> to connect K-12 records to higher education and workforce data, according to Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Texas<\/strong> agency asked eight school districts to send PII, including Social Security numbers, through the mail on unencrypted CDs<\/strong> for research purposes. The article reports that Laredo Independent School District<\/a> learned the CD it sent got lost in the mail<\/strong>, exposing nearly 25,000 current and former high school students to identity theft, according to the Texas Tribune<\/em><\/a>. Ratcliffe told The Huffington Post<\/em> that the request came from an agency employee who operated “way outside” normal protocol.<\/p>\n

\"SocialIt was not the only school data breach in Texas.<\/p>\n