(TNS) — A former University of Oregon undergraduate who says he discovered a significant security flaw in the college’s computer network and twice reported it to university officials faced a disciplinary hearing as a result.
Physics major Owen Mitchem said he was able to inadvertently access confidential information, including the Social Security numbers of more than 3,500 public university employees around the state, last fall, including of the university’s president and its football coach, the highest-paid public employee in the state. He says the breach should have been a wake-up call for the university to tighten its online security.
But according to an email the university provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive in response to a public records request, the university’s associate dean of students, Dianne Tanjuaquio, concluded that Mitchem’s actions violated the school’s policies on “acceptable use of computing resources.” She required him to write a 750-word essay reflecting on the situation; if not completed, he could face a suspension of his student account, preventing him from registering for classes or changing his course schedule…