Security lapse involves student records
University Police are launching an investigation into a possible security breach in which boxes containing confidential student information were left inside an unlocked room in the abandoned Life Sciences Building.
According to ABC Action News, a USF student alerted the news agency of the unsecured student records last Thursday and when news crews arrived to the Life Sciences building on Friday, the room was still unlocked.
Inside were boxes of student records, strewn about.
University Police (UP) Assistant Chief Christopher Daniel said the police agency was notified of a possible breach Friday and is currently conducting an investigation.
“We have to go back and review who was in the area, who had access to the area and who got in there, because that is not an operational area or an area of business at the moment,” Daniel said.
UP is also working with members of the local media to find out who sent the video from inside the room to the media, rather than alerting the proper authorities, Daniel said.
According to a statement from USF Director of Public Affairs Lara Wade to ABC Action News, the university immediately took action to secure the room when they were made aware of the security lapse.
“The first floor currently houses a herbarium – an area for plants, which currently only allows limited access to specific personnel,” Wade said. “No one else should have been occupying or using the building in any way. As a building scheduled for demolition, it is a secured facility, and the rooms remain locked at all times.”
A security firm checks the building twice a day, according to the statement from Wade.
The investigation by UP
is ongoing.
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