NEW YORK, New York. Hundreds of high school students from Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia may be at extreme risk of identity theft after winning scholarships from the McKelvey Foundation. The scholarship foundation, started by Monster.com founder Andrew McKelvey, placed a massive cache of former McKelvey Foundation Scholarship winners’ personal information online. A total of 51 files were discovered by the Liberty Coalition on November 8, 2007, using a major search engine. The files contained thousands of records, and roughly 694 unique names, social security numbers, dates of birth, high school, address, phone number, e-mail address, and other sensitive information. The server indicated that most of the files were last modified as early as March, 2004, indicating that they have probably been available online more than three years. Some of the files were modified as late as April 2007.
The Liberty Coalition notified several hundred of the victims of this breach by e-mail on November 26, 2007. Of the dozens who replied to the Liberty Coalition, none reported that they had been notified of the breach by the Foundation.
Though the McKelvey Foundation removed the files from the server within 24 hours of notification, it may be impossible to determine how many people accessed the files, who has copies of the files, or where they are in the world.
A McKelvey Foundation representative explained that the breach was a mistake, and that they were unaware that the files were online at the time the Liberty Coalition contacted them.
Individuals on these lists are at extreme risk of identity theft and other forms of danger. In addition, we also note that as of the date of this announcement, the McKelvey Foundation’s current website is not secure or encrypted, even though they require student applicants to surrender a wide range of sensitive information online. Until the McKelvey fails to secure their website, all youth who apply to the McKelvey Foundation expose their most sensitive information, including home address, e-mail, phone number high school (and, until November 2008, their social security numbers) to additional risk as it is passed over the internet unencrypted. The Liberty Coalition recommends that students should avoid applying for a McKelvey Foundation Scholarship until the foundation encrypts their website, creates a privacy policy, and demonstrates an appreciation of the profound trust thousands of youth and parents have placed in them.
You can confirm whether you were affected by this breach by searching for your name at www.ssnbreach.org.
Source: www.ssnbreach.org.