Guys. The College Board’s Reign of Terror over our lives Will Never End.
Legit. A year or more after each of us has finished up PSATs, SATs, SAT Subject Tests and APs, the College Board again rears its ugly head.* This time, however, it’s giving away our full name and e-mail addresses to phishing corporations!
Epsilon, the vendor that sends out e-mail from the College Board to us from the day we first sign up for the PSAT, had a massive security breach resulting in unauthorized entry into their system. See the full e-mail I received from the College Board below:
_______________________________________________________________________
We have been informed by Epsilon, the vendor that sends email to you on our behalf, that your e-mail address may have been exposed by unauthorized entry into their system.

This will be you, forever. (educatencare.com)
Epsilon has assured us that the only information that may have been obtained was your first and last name and e-mail address. REST ASSURED THAT THIS VENDOR DID NOT HAVE ACCESS TO OTHER MORE SENSITIVE INFORMATION SUCH AS SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER OR CREDIT CARD DATA.
Please note, it is possible you may receive spam e-mail messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties.
In keeping with standard security practices, the College Board will never ask you to provide or confirm any information, including credit card numbers, unless you are on a secure College Board site.
Epsilon has reported this incident to, and is working with, the appropriate authorities.
We regret this has taken place and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.
Sincerely,
The College Board
_______________________________________________________________________
Other corporations affected by the Epsilon breach include US Bank, JP Morgan Chase, McKinsey & Company, Capital One and New York & Company.
On the bright side, I look forward to the impending inundation of my inbox of e-mails from Nigerian oil tycoons telling me how sexy my AP Euro score is.
*In doing research for this article, I also learned that the Long Arm of the College Board doesn’t actually end with college. The College Board licenses out administration (though not ownership) of the SAT to the Educational Testing Service, which also puts out the Graduate Record Exam. Yet another reason not to go to grad school.
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