Theft of a laptop belonging to a University of West Georgia faculty member, may have put the identities of some 1,300 current and former students at risk. Information on the computer may have included the student’s name, address, phone, student ID number or Social Security number. The Carrollton, Ga. institution has notified the affected individuals about the situation in a letter sent to their last known address.

The laptop was stolen when the faculty member was traveling overseas last summer. A report was filed with the university but at the time no mention was made about personal information being stored on the computer. That possibility wasn’t discovered until recently when it was learned that a computer with improperly configured software, utilized by the same faculty member, may have allowed the exposure of university files over the Internet.

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