School in fresh security breach

Private pupil data posted online
POLICE are probing a serious information breach at an Oldham school following the internet posting of confidential student details.

More than 110 documents, including exclusion records, academic information and behaviour patterns at Hathershaw College from 2007 to 2009 were made available for anyone to download.

Photos of pupils at the Bellfield Avenue school were included in the files, which also contained detailed medical histories.

The documents have since been removed.

Principal Carol Cawkwell said: “We are grateful to the Oldham Chronicle for making us aware that information has become available on the internet.

“The information is historical data and no students currently at the college are affected by this.”

This is not the first security breach to have occurred at the school in recent years. During an update to the school’s computer systems in 2006 some security features were not activated correctly and a video was published on YouTube suggesting that student medical records could be accessed on the college’s official website.

The school’s switchboard message was also changed to include explicit and X-rated material in the same year.

Ms Cawkwell said the college is ontacting everyone involved in the incident.

“We are liaising with the police to investigate how this has happened.”