A Loyola University computer with the Social Security numbers of 58 hundred students was discarded before its hard drive was erased, forcing the school to warn students about potential identify theft.
Loyola spokeswoman Susan Malisch says there's no evidence any personal information has or will be accessed. But she told students in a letter they should take every possible step to safeguard their privacy.
The university is offering all of the affected students free credit monitoring for a year.
Most names on the computer were undergraduates, with a few grad students.
Malisch says the desktop computer was previously used by the university's Information Technology Services department.