Recent data breaches at three universities highlight the risk of human error when it comes to protecting confidential data. All three breaches were caused by employee mistakes rather than any kind of malicious activity, underscoring the need for more rigorous security processes, reports eWeek's Fahmida Y. Rashid. 

• Missouri State University said that the names and social security numbers of 6030 students were leaked in November when the data was loaded onto an insecure server rather than a server accessible only by university personnel.
• The University of South Carolina discovered in January that the social security numbers and other personal data of almost 31,000 students, faculty, staff and retired personnel had been exposed online. The university said that human error caused the breach, but it did not offer details.
• At Midlands Tech in South Carolina, a contractor not long ago left with a flash drive holding employees' personal data. The university got the drive back and says that the data probably wasn't used, but it is paying for employees' credit monitoring services anyway.

Honest, well-trained employees can make mistakes, so it is vital that processes are in place to correct them, experts say. If the MSU employee, for example, had been required to document the uploading of the data to the right server, the mistake could have been caught prior to becoming a security breach.

For more:
- see Fahmida Y. Rashid's article at eWeek

Related Articles:
Q&A: Indiana University's key to safeguarding confidential data
How to know if you've been breached
Survey: Most organizations don't delete data securely