14 DAY TRIAL // The Florida Department of Education (DOE) has issued a warning after the personal details of around 47,000 individuals that took part in the teacher preparation program had been publicly accessible online for a period of 14 days.
The incident occurred in late May, during the transfer of the information between Florida State University servers.
The DOE became aware of the incident on June 11.
So far, there’s no evidence that the information has been misused. However, the initial investigation has revealed that the data has been accessed 23 times via Google, including by unauthorized parties.
All the individuals whose information might have been compromised are being notified by the university and the DOE.
“This is unacceptable. All Floridians deserve our unceasing protection of their personal information and must have confidence that it will never be exposed for the potential of illegal use,” stated Commissioner of Education Tony Bennett.
“I have ordered a top to bottom review of the security of every database and our staff is expediting the transfer of all confidential information into servers directly monitored and secured by the department.”