SRJC mistakenly sends out personal data on nursing applicants

<p>Personal information of 403 applicants for Santa Rosa Junior College's nursing program inadvertently was sent to eight current students in a breach that college officials blamed on human error.</p><p>The error occurred Feb. 18 when a spreadsheet with information on the applicants was e-mailed to a nursing program instructor.</p><p>The spreadsheet included their names, addresses, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and some selected grades, said Mary Kay Rudolph, vice president of academic affairs.</p><p>The instructor then sent an e-mail to the eight students asking them to verify some information, not realizing how much information was on another part of the spreadsheet, said Ricardo Navarrette, vice president of student services.</p><p>“What happened is those students who received it, they opened a tab to their information, but there were other tabs — boom — there was information on the applicants to the incoming class,” he said.</p><p>He said that within 24 hours, the 403 applicants were notified of the breach and the eight students were asked to let college technicians remove the information from their computers.</p><p>Navarrette said SRJC is reviewing procedures on keeping such databases in individual academic departments.</p>