Yale officials yesterday reported the incident to the FBI. The
university claims that it has discovered 18 unauthorised logins
that were traced back to computers at Princeton’s admissions
office. The 11 students that Princeton was scrutinising were also
notified.
According to Yale, Princeton hacked into a confidential internet
record where applicants can find out whether or not they were
accepted. Yale claims that the hackers were able to access the
confidential admissions data because they had students’ dates of
birth and Social Security numbers, data also provided by students
in their applications to Princeton. Students used the same
information as passwords to access Yale’s web site.
Yale said that the Princeton hackers accessed the confidential
information before the students themselves. The students then could
not access the particular screen, because it only appears at the
first login.
Stephen LeMenager, Princeton’s dean and head of admissions,
claimed that the incident was “an innocent way to check out the
security [of Yale’s web site].”
However a spokeswoman for Princeton said: “We deeply regret that
information provided by students in good faith… was used
inappropriately by at least one official in our admissions office.”
LeMenager has been suspended.
An FBI spokeswoman said that information on the incident is
being assessed to determine whether there has been a federal
violation.
