8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2006
STUDENT HOUSING
Security jeopardized
BY RACHEL PARKER
rparker@kansan.com
KANSAN SKIP WRITEER
Students who applied for housing via the online application put out by the Department of Student Housing were alerted through either an e-mail or a letter that their private information might have been exposed.
"That information was given years ago; I didn't think I had to worry about it," she said.
A computer file with names, addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, social security numbers and credit card numbers was found accessible to the public on Dec. 16. The lack of security affected students who applied and paid an application fee online between April 29, 2001, and Dec. 16, 2005.
Becky Derdoski, Minneapolis, Minn., junior, applied online for residency in the 2003-2004 school year.
A similar incident occurred in April 2004 when the University disclosed that hackers might have tampered with records on a computer server of perscriptions at the Watkins Memorial Health Center's pharmacy. That case was reported to the FBI.
The housing department shut down its housing application Web site after a routine computer check showed that security measures were not working correctly.
"It is something that happens a lot at universities, unfortunately. We want to make sure we take care of every precaution, and make everyone fully aware." Cohen said.
While no evidence pertaining to unlawful use of student information has been discovered, the threat to students is still prevalent. The notification sent out to possibly affected students advised them to place fraud alert through wwwku.edu/identity or to call the housing department with any questions.
Out of about 9,200 online applicants in the past few years, only students that gave contact information were notified. Not all affected students still attend the University. Since Jan. 18, 154 phone calls and 52 e-mails have been received in response to the incident, according to Department of Student Housing records.
The Web site has been shut down and applications are now being taken manually until a new, secure site is up and working.
— Edited by Jodi Ann Holopireh
TECHNOLOGY
New design for KU Web site
BY ANNE WELTEM
aweltmer@kansan.com
KANSAN SHIFT WRITER
Designers premiered the new University of Kansas Web site on Tuesday with high expectations.
Todd Cohen, associate director of University Relations, said the University had three main goals for the new Web site: to incorporate the newly-adopted KU logo and identity; to look and feel easy to use; and to keep the same format for easy recognition of the University's Web site and its links.
Cohen said the new Web site offered a "current students" page with information catering to the needs and interests of students, something the old Web site didn't have at all.
The new site also has what he called "persistent navigation," which means each page has the same head and footer, the same links, and everything is located in the same place to make things easier to find.
"You won't click and look like you went somewhere else entirely," Cohen said.
Finally, Cohen said the new site included more pictures and facts about the University's history and its present to help prospective students, faculty and other visitors get a feel for Kansas.
Ian Horner, Mission Hills senior majoring in art history and painting, said his first impression of the new Web site was that it looked nicer. He said he thought it would improve the image of the school.
Horner said it had a "better design" and it was "cleaner, more professional."
Allison Rose Lopez, KU Public Relations and Marketing manager, said beside the cost of the actual logo design, phasing in KU's new image didn't cost anything extra. KU web communications department designed the Web site inhouse.
Cohen said the designers waited until the new logo came out to re-design the site.
The deadline for implementing the new design is the end of January for all of the departments at the University to redesign their own Web pages. As of now, it's still a work in progress.
— Edited by James Foley
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