The Hidden Cost of Going to College: Universities Are Sitting on Decades of Your Data — and Hackers Just Found a Master Key
If you, your kid, or even your parent attended a US university in the last few decades, your personal records may be sitting in a system that just got cracked wide open. A serious flaw in Oracle's enterprise software has, according to a single report from Dark Reading, given hackers an opening to steal large volumes of data — and American higher ed appears to have been hit hardest.
Bottom Line
This is less a story about one bad bug and more a reminder that universities quietly function as some of the largest, longest-lived warehouses of personal data in the country — and they're guarding it with far fewer resources than a bank would. Until more sources confirm the scope, treat the specifics as developing, but treat the personal risk as real and act preemptively.