Massive Security Breach Finally Affects Me
For years, I’ve been hearing about these big-time security breaches where hackers or somesuch mischievous types grab a hold of a whole bunch of social security numbers and crap like that. And for years I’ve been yawning and going about my business.
UNTIL TODAY!
Georgetown University, my alma mater, had some 38,000 names and SSNs stolen from the student activities office in the Leavey Center (GU’s wholly subpar student center). Friends have gotten this e-mail:
Dear Current or Former Students, Faculty and Staff:
We are writing to inform you that you are among a group of individuals whose personally identifiable information such as name and social security number may have been exposed due to a recent computer theft on campus. We regret this incident and wanted to alert you via email as soon as possible after completing our investigation of the nature and scope of the data at issue. Recognizing the seriousness of this incident and the concern we share for the personal security of those within our community, we are making arrangements to provide free credit monitoring services for you….
A thorough internal investigation of the data that was contained on the hard drive has now determined that the hard drive included personally identifiable information for students enrolled and some faculty and staff from 1998 through 2006. Since the files related to a range of cross-campus student financial transactions processed through the Office of Student Affairs, it pertained to students enrolled at the Main, Medical and Law Center campuses. No financial information, such as bank account or credit card numbers, was contained in the hard drive. This incident is limited to this one hard drive and does not extend to other University systems and services where personal data may be stored or updated.
Currently, I’m freaking the fuck out, fixated on how all my dreams of home ownership and car ownership and career success and old age and are all but certainly going up in flames! WHAT WILL I DO!?!?!
(Actually, I’m pretty chill, ’cause for all those years I’ve been hearing about these huge security breaches, I’ve yet to hear a single story about some dude who got his identity stolen because of it. And, hey, free credit monitoring! Long live blissful ignorance!)
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January 29th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Your parenthetical is the right attitude. I mean, you can buy that crap about anyone from all sorts of web sites.
I actually had my identity stolen a few years ago. Got a call from someone at IBM’s credit department, who was suspicious of a customer trying to buy stuff in my name and ship it to North Carolina. I contacted the credit reporting agencies and found out a couple other credit cards had been opened in my name.
It was all resolved with very little effort and the three credit reporting companies added what’s known as a “fraud watch” to my file. Which means, if I (or someone else) attempt to get credit in the future, they must contact me by telephone before extending any credit.
Umm, that seems like a really, really good idea, and I wish I had known that the standard practice is just to give credit to anyone without making sure who it is. But anyway, no trouble of any kind since then, and I’ve also gotten a mortgage so no trouble getting my own credit.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Well, so you think that it finally hit home…or maybe it’s just that you are only aware of this incident, this time. I’ve been a victim 6 major times going back to 1983, when my information became connected to a criminal charge. What you don’t know won’t hurt you, is how I used to look at the world. That was until about 14 years after this criminal charge shared my info, when I was applying for a job and a criminal record revealed my “other” identity. In the meantime, an accountant (I thought a friend) with a company I worked for used my social security number (and 5 other people as well) and paid herself close to 100k. IRS contacted me about a year and a half later investigating me for fraud and failure to report income and withheld 3 years of refunds until this all got straightened out. IRS decided to audit me for the next 6 years. That’s just the first two.
Identity Theft is not just about money and credit. When someone else’s blood type lands in your medical file because someone “borrows” your insurance info (they buy it, actually) to get desperately needed healthcare, or someone is just trying to make a buck, and you receive the medication or blood type that was “documented in your record”, if your allergic, it’s most probably gonna be lethal. As a nurse, what I see is scary.
All of your identities need monitoring, and more than just once or twice a month. It’s like your alarm company telling you on the 25th that your house was broken into or burnt down on the 4th. Even if they tell you on the 4th, they’re only monitoring the problem, don’t expect them to help you stop it.
I work with a company that not only monitors your identity every three hours, but does the tough work of stopping it from getting worse and actually restoring you to you, the you you were before you became the you you become when identity theft happens to you.
It’s going to get worse, no it won’t get better.