WSJ.com - Colleges Face Privacy Issues As ID Cards Collect More Data

The WSJ has an interesting article on the poor state of privacy at many college campus around the country that use magnetic swipe cards to provide students access to dorms, classrooms, recreational facilities, and meal plans. Many colleges are effectively collecting a complete record of students’ activities over insecure network using ID cards that contain unencrypted personal information. With some cheap hardware and a little technical know-how, it would be possible for anyone to set up a large scale identity theft scheme at many colleges around the country.

The article links to a case study of the University of Maryland, College Park that shows just how insecure these systems are and at the high privacy risk many college students face with ID card systems.

DISCLAIMER: One of the authors of the UMCP case study is my brother. I am very proud of his work and think it’s important that the university respond to his requests for a more secure system that protects his and other students’ identities.