Apology and Notice] Incorrect Information on Remote Individual Interview Applications Including Personal Information

Tokai University It has come to our attention that for a period of six days, the personal information entered by students when they applied for remote individual interviews at parents/guardians was accessible to non-faculty and staff members. At this time, there is no evidence of misuse of the personal information by a third party.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and concern this incident may have caused to the parents/guardians users and students who entered their personal information in order to request an individual interview, as well as to all parties concerned.

1. Background
On Thursday, October 5, 2023, at around 9:30 a.m., a faculty member of Tokai University School of Physical Education mistakenly posted the URL of a spreadsheet (a file on the network) containing basic information on a remote individual interview for parents/guardians with the URL of a report assignment for a class he/she was in charge of, and published it on the class support system "Open LMS". The teacher immediately realized the mistake and posted the incorrect URL on the Open LMS. The faculty member immediately noticed the mistake and corrected the URL, but a notification e-mail was already sent from the system to 63 students enrolled in the class, automatically notifying them of the updated information. Since the URL of the spreadsheet was included in the body of the e-mail, the spreadsheet was available for viewing and downloading by non-faculty members for six days until 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 11, when the system was locked.
On Saturday, March 14, the company that was commissioned to conduct the remote individual interviews informed us that the URL of the locked spreadsheet may have been accessed by a non-teaching staff member, and we began a detailed investigation, including interviews, to determine the circumstances of the incident.

２． URLの誤掲載で閲覧可能となった個人情報の内容
保護者対象のリモート個別面談を申し込まれた440名の①学生氏名②学生証番号③申込者氏名④申込者メールアドレス⑤申込者電話番号⑥特に面談したい内容⑦面談をしたい具体的事項

3. Response.
On Thursday, October 5, 2023, approximately 15 minutes after the faculty member concerned published the URL of the predsheet on the class support system, the error was noticed and the URL was immediately corrected on the system. In addition, on Friday, October 6 and Tuesday, October 17, 63 students who had downloaded the file were notified by e-mail to delete the file if they had downloaded it. In addition, during class time on Thursday the 19th, the faculty member and the department in charge apologized and explained the situation to the students, and requested their cooperation in protecting their personal information. In addition, we contacted the students in question to apologize and explain the situation.

Future efforts to prevent recurrence
Tokai University However, we take this incident very seriously, and we will work to prevent a recurrence by further raising awareness of the need for thorough management of information resources and handling of personal information through notification to and training of faculty and staff. We will work to prevent recurrence of such an incident.

5. inquiries regarding this matter
If you receive any suspicious communication from a third party in connection with this matter, please contact the department below as soon as possible. We will also be happy to respond to any questions or concerns you may have.

東海大学学長室（後援会担当）
TEL 0463-58-1211(代表)
（受付時間　平日9：00～17：00）