[Dataloss] Poly heist risks identity thefts

[lyger]

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/15169992.htm

Posted on Tue, Aug. 01, 2006
By Sally Connell

Cal Poly has notified 3,020 current and former students that their names 
and Social Security numbers were on a laptop computer stolen earlier this 
month from a physics professor's San Luis Obispo home.

Cal Poly used names and Social Security numbers on class lists before 
2004, according to Vicki Stover, campus information security officer.

The informational letter, which Cal Poly is required under state law to 
distribute to those affected, went to students who took the physics and 
astronomy lectures taught by physics professor John Mottman from 1994 to 
2004.

Cal Poly is trying to change its practice of using Social Security numbers 
as the main identifier for students, something that was once common in the 
halls of higher education.

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