Online Privacy Practices in Higher Education: Making the Grade?

In June 2006, the trustees of Ohio University (OU) voted unanimously to spend up to $4 million on enhanced information security. The decision came in the wake of the media coverage about OU's "lax, low-priority attitude toward security," resulting in data breaches, the theft of Social Security numbers, and an unsecured alumni database which was used by hackers for over a year to share music files and launch attacks on other systems.