[Dataloss] PA: Professor's laptops stolen; contained unsecured student information

[lyger]

(from Carnegie Mellon University's student newspaper)

http://www.thetartan.org/2007/10/8/news/laptop

The first weekend in September was notable for most students as it was the 
end of the first week of classes. For a small percentage of the student 
body population, it was the weekend that their social security numbers 
left campus, stored in the unencrypted files of two stolen laptop 
computers.

According to University Police reports filed on Sept. 2, the laptops were 
stolen from the office of a computer science professor in Wean Hall. The 
door is believed to have been locked and there were no signs of forced 
entry, according to case officer Lieutenant John Race of the Carnegie 
Mellon University Police.

[.]

Students whose social security numbers were stored on the stolen computers 
were informed of the theft on the weekend of Sept. 29. The e-mail provided 
students with general information about the theft as well as a website 
address through which they could set up a Fraud Alert system on their 
banking and credit accounts which would notify them of any suspicious 
credit patterns in the future. Further protective action was left to the 
discretion of the individual student.

[...]