Georgia Tech worker sends personal student data to 1,100 students

ATLANTA — A Georgia Tech employee sent personal information, such as student identification numbers, to approximately 1,100 students, officials confirmed Thursday to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The disclosure is similar to a July 2018 situation in which someone at the university mistakenly emailed personal information of nearly 8,000 College of Computing students to fellow students. Georgia Tech has about 33,000 students.

In both cases, the information included student names, identification numbers and grade-point averages.

Georgia Tech sophomore Golda Gershanok was confused after another data breach on campus.

"It's strange because it's a Tech school," Gershanok said. "Honestly, I wasn't really sure how to respond."

In the prior situation, many students were particularly upset by the sharing of their identification numbers, which they feared could be used to unlock other information about them. They were also angered by the release of their grade-point averages since Georgia Tech is one of the most academically-competitive schools in the nation.

"Those concerns really should be taken more seriously kind of at the university level, areas where you've got really sensitive information," said former federal prosecutor Kamal Ghali.

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Georgia Tech sent an email late Wednesday to affected students explaining some details about the data leak.

"Yesterday, a Georgia Tech staff member sent an email to approximately 1,100 students and, in doing so, inadvertently attached a file that included student names, ethnicity, Georgia Tech ID numbers, Georgia Tech e-mail addresses, and GPAs. The information did not include social security numbers or birthdates," the message began. "Since being notified of the incident, the Office of Information Technology has worked to recall as many of the emails as possible. We have notified the students impacted by this mistake. Last night, an emergency response team convened to evaluate and immediately address the situation. The team will work to implement immediate corrective action and enact comprehensive changes to Georgia Tech's data governance enterprise."

This article was written by Eric Stirgus, with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cox Media Group