CR80News | Illinois university joins ranks of schools dropping Social Security numbers

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Another university is dropping Social Security numbers as student identifiers. The new system kicks in after Memorial Day for Southern Illinois University, which will then identify a student by a random generated number.

Those new numbers will be called “Dawg Tags,” named after the university’s mascot, the saluki, considered the royal dog of Egypt. The new ID numbers are part of the larger process of converting to a new student information system, which should be implemented by the fall of 2009, says a school administrator.

Social Security numbers aren’t disappearing entirely. They will still be used by the university, but only for financial aid and payroll purposes. Read more here.

UConn breach results in theft of private information

An UConn computer with the names and Social Security Numbers of more than 10,000 university applicants was stolen, according to a local news report.

The computer, stolen from an IT storage cabinet at university’s West Hartford campus, had applicant files ranging from 2004 through July 30. UConn officials are still investigating the theft, which was discovered on Aug. 3.

UH security breach affects SSNs and credit cards

University of Hawaii officials made an announcement that a hacker was able to breach the security of a parking office server, which contained the personal information of some 53,000 people, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

ColorID presents campus technologies at Illinois State ID University meeting

ColorID, a supplier to the campus card industry, presented at this year’s 5th annual Illinois State ID meeting hosted at Illinois State University at Bloomington.

Automated library service exposes student and faculty personal data

The College Center for Library Automation in Tallahassee sent out notices about a software upgrade that may have left about 30,000 students, faculty and staff Social Security numbers and other private data vulnerable for theft, according to a local news article.

University Business, Higher One honors Models of Efficiency

University Business Magazine and Higher One are honoring seven colleges and universities in their summer 2010 Models of Efficiency program, to honor institutions of higher learning that meet the education business and technology challenges of today’s campuses.

PSU hit again, exposing over 15,000 students information

Penn State University has yet again been victimized with another data breach situation resulting in the possible compromise of 15,800 student’s personal information, according to eSecurity Planet.

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Illinois university joins ranks of schools dropping Social Security numbers