HUGE Data Protection leak in Irish Schools.

A huge Data Protection Leak that allows anyone with a generic username and password can log onto school servers remotely and access and alter data.

Some of the records than can be accessed include

• The pupil’s photograph
• Their date of birth
• Their parents’ names and contact phone numbers
• Details of any of the pupil’s siblings who are also enrolled in the school
• The name of the pupil’s family doctor
• The classes in which that pupil is enrolled, and their individual timetable
• The pupil’s attendance records
• Records of the student’s misconduct, including disruptive behaviour or homework not completed, and
• Results of that pupil’s in-house examinations for as long as the system has been live, and their results in any state exams

And the government want us to give them a Yes vote in the upcoming referendum and they ant even ensure childrens data is protected!

PERSONAL RECORDS of thousands of secondary school pupils – including their academic records, parents’ details and disciplinary history - could be available to view by any internet user, TheJournal.ie can reveal.
A grave security flaw in the data management systems used by a large number of Irish secondary schools means that highly sensitive data is available to anyone – armed with only a generic username and password.
The systems, which run on servers physically installed in the schools, use ‘ePortal’ software created by the British services giant Serco and can be accessed remotely through the internet – though all data is hidden to anyone without a password.
But a default, generic username and password combination – which is now said to have been leaked online – allows full access to almost all of the ePortal servers run in Irish schools, opening up public access to thousands of pupils’ records.
The leak of this combination – which can be thought of as a master key, allowing anyone with them to log in to any Irish school’s ePortal server – means the personal data of the pupils in those schools can be accessed quickly and easily.       

 http://www.thejournal.ie/irish-secondary-schools-data-protection-risk-643484-Oct2012/