Student warned OU of network vulnerability years ago

Four years ago, Jeremy Valeda cracked the Ohio University computer servers and plucked a few Social Security numbers to prove that the system was vulnerable.

Instead of fixing the security problems, university officials focused on punishing him, said Valeda, who was a member of the Student Senate at the time.

Now the university is dealing with a computer crisis because hackers gained access to personal information in more than 367,000 files starting in mid-April.