Within month of Sonoma State security scare, The Collegian staff discover online flaw

By Nyrie Karkazian
The Collegian

Monday, The Collegian staff members ran into a problem with online security.

One staff member logged onto MyFresnoState.com, checked his class schedule, and logged off. The next staff member logged onto the same computer immediately after him, but when she clicked onto her student portfolio, it displayed the previous student’s schedule.

The incident followed on the heels of a hacker invading the online privacy of 61,000 Sonoma State University students last month.

The names and Social Security numbers of students who applied for or attended Sonoma State between 1995 and 2002 were accessed through seven campus computer workstations, Sonoma State Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Katharyn Crabbe told the Associated Press last week.

“It’s scary knowing how easy it is to hack into a system that contains your Social Security number,” Maral Derkalousdian, a Fresno State liberal studies major, said. “If someone knows your Social Security number they can receive almost any information possible.”

Darrell Martin, Fresno State’s interim director of Information Technology Services, and John Briar, director of Campus Information Systems, were unavailable for comment Tuesday. Other campus personnel would not comment.