The theft is believed to affect only those employees hired on, or before, September 28, 2007 but the total number of individuals affected could be as high as 72,000, given the size of the university.
Details of the crime are still under investigation, but officials suspect this was a case of property theft — that the data contained on the laptop was not the primary target. Nonetheless, the university has issued a statement to all current and past employees acknowledging the potential impact of the crime, and implications relating to identity theft.
The stolen laptop contained a wealth of information including employee's names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and more. The scope of information compromised arms identity thieves to perpetrate credit card fraud and other identity-related crimes.
Security data breaches at educational facilities continue to pose a large threat to consumers even as security measures are beginning to increase. Other well-known institutions suffering security breaches this year include Harvard University, New York University, the University of California at San Francisco, and Oklahoma State University.
If you suspect that you are a victim of this security breach, you need to take action now to protect yourself from identity theft. Whether this breach occurred yesterday or last year, your personal information is in criminal hands and could be used at any time to steal your identity. Traditional credit monitoring only reports on theft after damage has been done. Only through proactive, preventative identity monitoring can you be sure that your identity, assets, and credit are safe.
At the IdentityTruth website, you can learn about the latest advancements in identity theft prevention and use online tools to instantly check to see if your identity has been compromised.
Don't wait - take action today and stop identity theft before damage occurs!
