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American Morning

'Yale Daily News' Editor Discusses Yale's Accusation of Hacking by Princeton

Aired July 26, 2002 - 09:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It's being called a bad case of poison Ivy. Yale is accusing Princeton of hacking into its admissions Web site to learn about its applicants. Princeton has apologized, placed its director of admissions on administrative leave, but Yale wants the FBI to get involved.

Let's talk about it with Chris Michel from Washington, editor-in- chief of the "Yale Daily News" which first reported this story.

Good morning to you, Chris.

CHRIS MICHEL, "YALE DAILY NEWS": Hi, Bill.

HEMMER: What was -- what was Princeton looking for?

MICHEL: Well, Bill, that's the question that everybody is trying to answer. Originally Princeton said that they were just trying to test the security of Yale's admission site. But they've backpedaled from that a little bit, now they say they're investigating it on their own. And we'll -- you know we'll see what they come up with.

HEMMER: Do you know what they found?

MICHEL: Well, Bill, what they came across was two different screens. In four of the cases they logged -- they got into 11 students total. In four of the cases, they saw the applicant's actual decision before the applicant did him or herself. After that, they were able to log in multiple times to the same account. And in those instances, they found information about the student's interests and the possible courses they might want to pursue in college that the applicant himself provided to the university.

HEMMER: Why would Princeton be interested in this and what would they do with that information, Chris?

MICHEL: Well I mean that's, again, you know the question that we want to answer. But of course it doesn't take any great leap to see that Princeton could gain a number of advantages from this. First of all, just knowing whether or not the student was admitted would give them the opportunity to perhaps call the student or tailor a recruiting pitch in some other way. And if they had specific information about a student's interests, which very well may have changed since they submitted their application in November or December, they could tailor that recruiting pitch even more.

HEMMER: Now, Chris, listen, I want to put up a statement from Princeton. They released this yesterday. I'm quoting now. "Princeton will cooperate fully with any external investigation that may be conducted in addition to conducting our own."

How was this discovered by Yale -- do you know yet?

MICHEL: Yes, it originally came to Yale's attention at an Ivy dean's conference in June. There were a number of admissions officers talking about online admissions in general. And Princeton sort of nonchalantly mentioned that they had logged into Yale's Web site. Once the Yale admissions officers got back to New Haven, they started an investigation and they were able to trace the logins back to the Princeton admissions office.

HEMMER: You said they accidentally said in public that they had logged on?

MICHEL: Well, it's unclear exactly why they said that. I guess they were trying to show Yale that its security was compromised. But I have -- you know I am not sure exactly why they decided to do it in that way.

HEMMER: I thought this was Ivy League. Listen, kidding aside, did this -- does this underline the competition within the Ivy League schools?

MICHEL: Well I think in some ways it certainly does. I mean the mere fact that that's the first thing we all think of that they were trying to gain some sort of advantage and try to get the best students away from Yale, that's evidence itself that this competitive mentality really does pervade the Ivy League.

HEMMER: Yes.

MICHEL: And I think it's really sad that if this is why they did it, it's sad that it's come to this.

HEMMER: Chris, I've got to run, but listen, will Yale change its process or its policy for notification of admission?

MICHEL: I think they're going to continue to stick with online admissions notification. But next year there's going to be a personal identification number and perhaps a personal password given to the students also to prevent this.

HEMMER: And maybe a few firewalls, too, I would think, huh?

Thanks, Chris. Chris Michel, again in Washington, with us.

MICHEL: Thanks.

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