Directory information is but one facet of the reams of biographical data held by the University.

The Registrar’s Office houses the most personal of students’ data, including their social security numbers, grades, and family information.

According to Steen, this concentration of valuable data means that the Registrar’s Office has long been one of Harvard’s most secure locations.

“Long ago, the registrar’s system wasn’t connected to the network, it was a dial back system—you would call them and it would verify your phone number,” Steen says. “We’ve tried to simulate that same kind of protection and so before you can see anything it tries to verify who is seeking it.”

Executive Director of Information Services for the Registrar Pedro Moura also says that now, access to sensitive student data—including that of secure-flagged students protected under FERPA—is accessible only to people who have had long-standing professional relationships with the office.

“Sensitive student information is available only to a few full-time data professionals who built their careers on the integrity of their work,” Moura writes in an e-mail.

Both Steen and Moura say that to the best of their knowledge, no one has ever “hacked” into the registrar’s student data.

“The system is protected behind all kind of securities. It isn’t just hacking it, it’s finding it,” Steen says. “I don’t like to talk about it because you don’t want to give people a challenge.”

—Staff writer Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at jprogers@fas.harvard.edu.