Yale officials yesterday reported the incident to the FBI. The university claims that it has discovered 18 unauthorised logins that were traced back to computers at Princeton’s admissions office. The 11 students that Princeton was scrutinising were also notified.
According to Yale, Princeton hacked into a confidential internet record where applicants can find out whether or not they were accepted. Yale claims that the hackers were able to access the confidential admissions data because they had students’ dates of birth and Social Security numbers, data also provided by students in their applications to Princeton. Students used the same information as passwords to access Yale’s web site.
Yale said that the Princeton hackers accessed the confidential information before the students themselves. The students then could not access the particular screen, because it only appears at the first login.
Stephen LeMenager, Princeton’s dean and head of admissions, claimed that the incident was “an innocent way to check out the security [of Yale’s web site].”
However a spokeswoman for Princeton said: “We deeply regret that information provided by students in good faith… was used inappropriately by at least one official in our admissions office.” LeMenager has been suspended.
An FBI spokeswoman said that information on the incident is being assessed to determine whether there has been a federal violation.