janelane wrote:
USC learned of the breach June 20 when it was tipped off by a journalist, Harrington said. It has since shut down the Web site and has notified people whose names and Social Security numbers were in the database of the security breach.
The university was not able to identify exactly which records may have been exposed.
Note the CNN article's coverage (vie Reuters) and the weak grasp of numbers... http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/07/19/crime.identity.reut/index.html
The headline: "A University of Southern California database containing about 270,000 records of past applicants including their names and Social Security numbers was hacked last month, officials said Tuesday."
...and in the first paragraph: "The breach of the university's online application database exposed 'dozens' of records to unauthorized individuals, said Katharine Harrington, USC dean of admissions and financial aid."
While it is true that 270,000 contains many (many, many) dozens, it's a little like giving the weight of a building as "several ounces".
