In a , the MSCS contractor, identified as Frank Corcino, said he had received the information directly from Stanford, then decrypted it and put it into a spreadsheet. Corcino told the Times he then handed off the spreadsheet to a job applicant as parts of a skills test.

According to the newspaper, Corcino said the applicant was unaware the spreadsheet data was private and posted it on the homework help site in Sept. 2010. The data remained on the site until August 22, 2011, when it was discovered by a patient.

Corcino blames Stanford for sending him unnecessary data and MSCS for not having an appropriate training and audit system for such data, according to the Times story. He also claimed that MSCS allowed him to use the title of executive vice president, the story said.

Neither Corcino nor MSCS responded to a request for comment.

Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at , or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .