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.
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