Business School Admission Database Hack Attack

March 2005

Applicants Hack Into B-School Admissions Databases

Several of our users report having received an odd email from Harvard Business School on Wednesday. It advised HBS applicants that ApplyYourself, the on-line application service used by Harvard and many other schools, had been hacked into the previous night by applicants looking for advance information on their admission status.

HBS assured applicants that all information contained in the system remained secure – and reminded applicants that no admissions decision is final before the notification date. That should be ominous information for anyone who attempted to break into the system, as HBS also made clear that hacking is not the kind of behavior it expects from or welcomes in its students.

According to various sources, instructions on how to hack into ApplyYourself were posted to an on-line message board for business school applicants sometime in the wee hours of March 2. The posting was available for about nine hours before being detected and deleted, at ApplyYourself's request. During that time over 140 attempts were made to access admissions records at schools which use the online service. Harvard officials reported over 100 attempts, and Stanford officials at least 40. Other schools that reported attempts include Duke, MIT, Dartmouth, and Carnegie Mellon.

The instructions posted on the message board would only give individuals access to accounts they had the user names and passwords for, ApplyYourself spokesmen said. This means that other applicants' information remained secure – and also means that schools can easily identify which applicants attempted to hack into the system.

The Bottom Line

Anyone can understand the anxiety that top business school applicants face while waiting to hear word on their admission status. However, that pressure is no excuse for engaging in blatantly unethical behavior. Business leaders are called on to uphold ethical standards in the face of far more stressful situations every day. They are also expected to understand the role that trust and respect play in maintaining key relationships. Anyone who couldn't resist the temptation to make use of the hacking instructions posted on the message board, or who couldn't predict the consequences of doing so, should re-think their future as a business leader even if they do still manage to get accepted to their chosen program.