Board Addresses Data Breech

The Missouri Board of Education has addressed a data flaw within a state Department of Education web application. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter informed the department last week of an online structure weakness with the ability to publicly show the social security numbers of about 100-thousand teachers. The newspaper says it gave the state agency time to remove the online details before it published a story about the vulnerability. Missourinet attended today’s board meeting when President Charlie Shields said many businesses and organizations have experienced challenges like this.

Governor Parson has threatened criminal prosecution against the newspaper and says it was “acting against a state agency to compromise teachers’ personal information in an attempt to embarrass the state and sell headlines.”