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Personal information of 10,000 U.S. Marines erroneously posted online

What happened? After giving the data to Penn State University for research, the university inadvertently posted the it on a university website where it was cached by Google.

What types of personal information? The names, Social Security numbers and scores of Marines who attended rifle qualification training at Parris Island between January 2004 and December 2006.

Details: The data was being used for research on the effectiveness of live-fire and simulated training on individual and crew-served weapons. The information was posted on or about June 7 and left up for 10 days

What was the response? The Marine Corps sent an organization-wide message to notify potential victims. Penn State’s Security Operations and Services department removed the files and contacted Google.
The Marine Corps has established a response team to contact all personnel whose personal information was posted.

For help: Victims can go to Marine Corps Administrative Message 443/07 at https://www.usmc.mil.

Source: Stars and Stripes, July 27, “Marines’ personal data posted online

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