Private information of students in Design of Secure Systems class leaked on YouTube
On Sept.9, students in CSI 4139, Design of Secure Systems, joined their class using YouTube live streams only to see their private information leaked on YouTube.
The professor was seemingly unaware that he was publicly broadcasting the names, email addresses, year of study, and programs of each student.
This live stream was publicly recorded and available for the general public to view.
When asked for a statement regarding the matter, professor Mohamed Ali Ibrahim did not respond to The Fulcrum.
The issue has since been brought to the attention of the dean of engineering by students, and an apology has been sent to all students in the course by Claude D’Amours, the U of O’s director of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
In his letter, he states that the University’s Access to Information and Privacy Office has been informed, with the procedure 20-8 – Privacy Breach Response Protocol, a necessary response to any data breach that may occur. It is also mentioned that all copies of the video must be deleted/destroyed in order to make sure the video does not spread.
Procedure 20-8 states that “the Director shall take such further measures or actions within his or her authority to mitigate or correct the Privacy Breach as may be appropriate, having regard to the seriousness of the Privacy Breach “
Natalia Maximo, a fourth-year computer science student who has taken the class in the past, said the occurrence reflects the difficulties of the digital age.
“I think that whole incident really speaks to how under-considered security and privacy really are in the digital age, and a bit as well to the lack of training being offered to professors,” said Maximo. “We need to be doing a lot better to safeguard students’ information than we are.”
The University does have other options for broadcasting course material including Microsoft teams, Zoom, Adobe Connect, and the Brightspace built-in tools.
