Stolen VCU computer exposes Social Security numbers
Times-Dispatch
VCU says letters notifying those affected were mailed yesterday. Others are being told their names and test scores could be on the computer.
Virginia Commonwealth University is notifying 17,214 current and former students of a security breach that may have exposed their Social Security numbers.
VCU is offering a year of free identity-theft insurance after a desktop computer was stolen from a secured area within Cabell Library in mid-April.
The computer may have contained student names, Social Security numbers and test scores dating from October 2005 to the present. VCU discontinued use of Social Security numbers as ID numbers in January 2007.
VCU spokeswoman Pam Lepley said letters notifying those affected were mailed Thursday.
An additional 22,500 students are being notified that their names and test scores may have also been on the computer. No Social Security numbers were recorded with those names, but computer-generated student ID numbers may have been.
The computer was part of a scanning system used to score tests and to record grades for many university classes.
Campus police know who stole the computer but they were unable to recover it. Mark Willis, VCU's chief information officer, said the computer was taken for personal use and then disposed of.
The computer was thrown away and not sold, Lepley said. The computer, which was in a locked area within a locked room, was discovered missing less than a day after the theft.
She said she could not say if the suspect was student or staff member. The case has been turned over to the commonwealth's attorney's office.
Reader Reactions
I misread the article and was thinking it was a laptop but now knowing that it was a desktop makes it even worse.
badger - staff does NOT equal faculty - staff equals hourly positions and salaried positions other than faculty. It is very possible for a student to also be an employee, I know this because I have been for four years. There is NO way that a regular student got a computer out of Cabell without either being an employee with access to and from the building through a swipe card or without the help of an employee who had this kind of access. Not to mention the fact that the unit stolen was a desk top NOT a lap top. From what I have seen of Cabell, every single desktop tower in there is attached to the monitor that accompanies it as well as attached to the desk which it occupies. A computer holding that kind of information should not be even accessible to the average student or even a worker without security clearance (aka a background check) and any unit like that should have had the protection of having a lojack of some kind just in case it got stolen.
I got my letter in the mail this afternoon which was VERY vague about what exactly had been compromised but my infornation (what information was not revealed) MIGHT have been on it. WTF kind of response is that? Oh, but VCU makes it all better by offering credit watch which will alert me when some freak steal my identity and they will cover up to $1 million in identity theft but would they be willing to put in the more than two years it takes to get something wiped off of your credit report after your identity is stolen?? Nope. And yes, it does take that long because my ex husband used my social for a bunch of stuff after we were divorced in 2007 and I am STILL fighting it.
As for the person who downed LifeLock, make fun all you want. My mom has the service and was immediately alerted by someone who tried to use her id to get a car and the guy went to jail over it within a day. For any students at VCU I would recommend some kind of product because this is the second incident I have dealt with in two years with my info just sneaking out of their hands.
The person who stole it was caught. That person is (was) a student. It was not any member of faculty.
This is the second time our families information has been compromised with an agency affiliated with the state.
First my information from the Department of Health Professions and now my husbands with VCU (just got the letter).
No need to fear!! All of the students had LifeLock so their info is safe!! Those commercials are ridiculous
I would be more than pissed if my name or anything else was on that computer. Why was that sort of information on a laptop in the first place? What a bunch of idiots!
Desktop stolen from a secure location - aka staff did it because you can get a book out of that library without setting off the alarm even after it’s been checked out. The real question is why would VCU not spend the extra few dollars to lojack any computer that held this kind of information and why would a computer like that even be accessible to anyone other than upper level management? If anyone thinks it’s hard to figure out who you are with your social minus your name, think again. It doesnt matter if names were attached to those socials or not, it is easy enough with a social to get any information you want on someone.
VCU didn’t mention it before because they were hoping they could get the unit back before that info leaked out. No such luck. And I seriously doubt the thief just “threw the unit away”. I’d like to know how they know he did other than just asking him. VCU needs to tighten down on who they are hiring.
I just got an e-mail saying my test scores were on the stolen computer. Fortunately, I’m not one of the people who had their social security number on it (or so they have told me.)
But in the e-mail, they reported that the computer was stolen on April 17. Why are we only hearing about this now?
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