Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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55,000 students and staff in huge data leak » Email adresses, home addresses, student numbers, course details and job titles all included in the spreadsheet. » File was available between August 2009 until March 2011; College were made aware of the breach on March 30.
Ronan Costello Editor A DATA breach on the college network has resulted in a student inadvertently downloading a spreadsheet with 56,478 names of students and staff as well as private information for each entry. The student, who will remain anonymous, said, “I was looking to fi nd contact details for one of my TA’s, but couldn’t remember their full name and only had there email address. Thus, I typed their email address in Google and got only one result, an excel fi le, which was 10.7 MB titled ‘tcdfpatron1.csv’.” The student then downloaded the fi le, assuming that its relevance in the google search might lead to the TA’s contact details. What was found instead was private information for thousands of both current and former students and staff dating back to 2001. “For every single name there is a student/staff ID number, their full name, their home address, their course/department code, the date that they registered, their @tcd.ie email address and some contain a number of other codes after their name, but its not readily apparent what these stand for,” said the student. “Also, quite a few have brief descriptions of their role, such as ‘Visting Researcher’, ‘Associate Professor’, ‘Fellow’ or other such things, after their info. The addresses include visiting lecturers or staff from
Shanghai, the USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Greece, Sweden and students from all over the world, but most of them being Irish obviously.” The document was available to download on the college network for over a year. The breach was brought to the attention of students in an email sent by Librarian Robin Adams on April 29 in which he said that the fi le was available between August 2009 until March 2011. The error was discovered by college on March 30. In the email Mr Adams said, “Th is information was not accessible through the internet and the College has no reason to believe that your privacy was compromised.” “In line with Data Protection legislation the College has reported this incident to the Data Protection Commissioner. We regret that this incident has taken place and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. The College takes its obligation to protect your data very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.” However, the student who contacted The University Times speculated that other students were likely to have downloaded the fi le. “I would imagine that other people, most likely students, also have this fi le, although they (like me, for a while) may not realise that they have it. Potential uses for the data could be to access the exam results or other academic records of notable/interesting students
based on their student numbers, or use the email addresses of a huge amount of Trinity students, guests and Alumni for commercial, personal or other uses - similar for example to the infamous ‘Trinity Cat’ email that occurred towards the end of last year. Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of excel, or Trinity’s admin systems could think of other uses for the data.” Whether a student or staff member downloaded the fi le and then used it for any such purposes is unknown. SU President Ryan Bartlett said, “College is entrusted with the personal information of students and, as such, they are expected to ensure that that information is well protected. The most shocking part of this is how simple it seems to have been to breach the security of the database and download all this sensitive information. Th is is the largest breach in a series, after the ‘Trinity Cat’ email and most recently the ‘Conan’ staff entry on the English Department’s web page. Security must be increased if students and staff are to renew confidence in Trinity’s network.” The security of the college network has been a recurring issue in the past year and has received attention from the national media, with The Irish Times reporting on the recent posting of a ‘Conan the Barbarian’ page on the English Department’s staff directory. A spokesperson from ISS was not available to comment at the time of going to print.
BNP leader Nick Griffi n has been invited to speak at a debate on immigration by The College Philosophical Society.
Outrage at invitation to BNP leader Rónán Burtenshaw Deputy Editor THE LEADER of the British National Party (BNP), Nick Griffi n, has been invited to speak at Trinity College. The invitation was extended by The Philosophical Society, to a debate entitled “Th is House Believes Immigration Has Gone Too Far” on October 20. Nick Griffi n MEP has been chairman of the BNP, a far-right, nationalist political party, since 1999. The BNP formed in the early 1980s from a splinter group of the National Front, for
whom Griffi n had previously worked. The BNP had, until a successful legal challenge in 2010, restricted membership to “indigenous British” people, mirroring the “white-only” policy of its parent organisation. The BNP’s most prominent policies relate to race and immigration issues. They propose “fi rm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home” and oppose many of Britain’s anti-discrimination laws. The party website contextualises support for these policies with the statement
that “the indigenous British people will become an ethnic minority in our own country well within sixty years”. The latest census information from 2009 shows that the number of ‘White British’ people living in England is 82.8%. Wales’ 2009 statistic was 93% while Scotland and Northern Ireland were at 95.5% and 99.2% respectively in 2001. Griffi n has regularly contested elections for the BNP and, in 2009, was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England. He stood unsuccessfully for election to
the House of Commons in 2010, fi nishing third in London’s Barking constituency. Following the election he announced that he would stand down as leader of the party by 2013. BNP had its most successful year electorally in 2009, with the party winning its fi rst council seats and adding Andrew Brons’ seat in the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency to Griffi n’s in the European Parliament. In the 2010 general election the BNP failed to win any seats, securing 1.9% of the vote. Th is was widely considered a disappointing
result for the party, on the back of their 2009 performance, but was nonetheless their best performance in a general election. The BNP describe themselves as “Britain’s fastest growing political party”, but have recently had to compete for influence on the far-right with the newly-prominent English Defence League (EDL). Nick Griffi n was convicted in 1998 of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred. He was acquitted in 2005 of a Continued on page 4
SF Science students repeat an average of 3.6 exams Niall Donnelly College Affairs Editor THE NUMBER of Senior Freshman (SF) Science students having to sit supplmental modules is significanty high, promting fears that poor exam scheduling is to blame. Figures illustrate the depth of the problem, 120 students had to resit science modules during the September repeats and that does not include the number of students who passed by compensation, choosing not to repeat failed moduels. The average number of modules a SF student had to resit was at a high of 3.6. These figures were brought to the attention of The University Times after a Katie Boyle SF Science Convenor highlighted her
concerns to SU Education Officer Rachel Barry. Boyle suggested that a hectic exam timetable was to blame for the high level of repeats. She explained that she had to sit fi fteen exams in the May exam period; three of them were practical and the remaining twelve were written exams. Six of the written exams were scheduled for the fi rst five days of the examination period. She further explained that students tended to select certain combinations of subjects but that these were more likely to be examined in quick sucession. For example, four Geology modules were scheduled for the start of the examination period but on top of this were core Biology modules that most students are expected
to sit. Th is could have been avoided by spacing these core modules throughout the examination period, giving students preparation time for each exam. To try and overcome the timetabling nightmare, students are trying to develop tactics to save time. Many try to spot patterns of exam questions, proritised in some subjects and modules, over others. Rachel Barry met with the Science Department’s Course Director, Prof Watson, to discuss the students concerns. Barry a n d Watson agreed that the high level of failure was a multi faceted issue. The figures could
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be due to a varity of reasons. She explained, “There is the obvious issue that there are some students who are simply not doing the required level of work”. Secondly, and more intriguing, it was suggested that, “Many students are not prepared by the leaving cert for the type of learning expected by college”. The SU has promised to look into this issue in the forthcoming months. Finally, the competitive nature of the moderatorship system was noted. Barry stated, “If a student wants to get a moderatorship in, say, Plant Sciences in JS year they tend to put more emphasis on their Biology modules, sometimes to
the neglect of other modules. They then get into a situation where they actually fail the other modules!” However Barry took issue with the problem of exam
period”. Although reaffi rming that it was not the only factor she suggested, “It is quite clear that the amount of exams being sat in one period (which can be high-
discussion and informed us that she has produced a comprehensive report on the current academic year structure which will be tabled at the Undergraduate
SU Education Officer Rachel Barry said, ’the sheer amount of exams being sat by science students, and the timetabling of those exams, results in an extremely tough annual examination period.”
timetabling, suggesting that it was being overlooked by the Science Department. She noted, “the sheer amount of exams being sat by science students, and the timetabling of those exams, results in an extremely tough annual examination
er than 10 in some departments) may have an effect on the mental health of students around the exam period and consequently their ability to pass all of their exams” She concluded that the matter merited further
Studies Committee and circulated throughout college. Clive Williams, Head of the Electioneering, Mathematics and Science Faulty, spoke to The University Times about the issue. He expressed his concerns over the increase of students
The University Times
Editor: Ronan Costello Deputy Editor: Rónán Burtenshaw Volume 3, Issue 1
failing science, explaining that there was a 5% increase in the failure rate from last year, from 33.5% to 38.5%. He highlighted that although the figures were a cause for concern, it was tricky to see trends in the data to conclude that students who had more stressful timetables failed more exams. Nevertheless he believed that having numerous exams clustered together was unfair. Williams had a meeting with the Science Course Committee last week to resolve the timetabling problem. The Committee agreed to have a closer look at the issue and would attempt to spread out the examinations for next year timetable.
Th is newspaper is produced with the fi nancial support of Trinity College Students’ Union. It is editorially independent and claims no special rights or privileges.