By: Mel alvarez/Contributing Writer
Students and alumni are on high alert after receiving a letter from the University informing them their personal information may have been compromised due to a security breach.
The standardized testing database which contain names, grade point averages, test scores, birthdays and social security numbers of some 19,500 current and former students was discovered to be unsecure in August.
Officials for the Center for Academic Success noticed someone had inserted a smiley face emoticon on the database’s internal website and immediately informed Robert Grillo, vice president information techonology and chief information officer for University Technology Services.
“[Public access was cut off] as a precautionary measure for our students and employees to make them aware,” said Grillo of the actions being taken to restore security. Because there is no evidence anyone actually downloaded or used the data, the University is taking preventative actions as of press time.
Similar security scares have transpired at the University in the past, the most recent of which occurred in May 2010. In that instance, nearly 20,000 student and faculty personal information was publicly accessible for a short period of time.
When Student Media asked what steps are being taken to insure that such situations aren’t recurring, Grillo said “A training component and awareness to educate [employees] to deal with and handle sensitive information. The infrastructure is already in place to house sensitive data but training is most important.”
Many of the students who received the University’s courtesy letter regarding the current security breach have already taken steps recommended by the school to insure protection against possible fraud and identity theft.
“I took preemptive measures and by following the instructions provided in the letter, I placed a fraud alert on one of the Credit Bureaus,” said Santiago Diaz, an international relations and marketing alum of the University.
He added, “It goes without saying that a security breach of confidential information is unacceptable and [University administration] should do what is necessary in order to strengthen security measures to protect such sensitive information, not only now, but also going forward.”
The University is advising those students, who received the letter regarding the incident or anyone who took a test at Center for Academic Success between 2005 and 2010, to contact the three credit bureaus and place a fraud alert on their accounts.
There were 250,854 identity theft complaints in the U.S. during 2010 according to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC’s report, released earlier this year, also indicated Florida ranks as the state with the highest per capita rate of reported identity theft complaints.
“We are living in a world of technology and many people put their trust and personal information in computer systems, unaware that situations like this one can occur,” said senior and advertising major Adriana Bittar.
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