In a statement, the Athens, Ohio-based school announced that Tom Reid, the university's director of communication network services, and Todd Acheson, the manager of Internet and systems for the school, were dismissed in the wake of the breaches -- including one that exposed personal information on 137,000 alumni.

The firings come three weeks after the school's CIO, William Sams, resigned following the disclosure of the security breaches.

Last week, the university announced a 20-point plan to improve information security at the school, which has about 16,640 undergraduate students and 862 full-time faculty members on its Athens campus.

The initiatives that are scheduled to be completed over the next nine to 12 months include the installation of a perimeter firewall, implementation of a system to classify data by the level of security required and an effort to reduce the use of Social Security numbers at the university. When Social Security numbers are needed, the school plans to encrypt them. Also planned is the reorganization of the school's central IT organization to establish clear roles and responsibilities for each division.

The initiatives are expected to cost between US$5.5 million and $8 million.