Penn State SSNs possibly stolen
18 March, 2009
category: Digital ID, Education
A computer virus infected an administrative computer in the Penn State Office of Physical Plant potentially compromising employees’ identities, according to a Centre Daily News report.
The Social Security numbers of 1,000 people who were employees of the Penn State Office of Physical Plant may have been stolen. The employees who are at risk were alerted to the breach, but so far there have been no reports of identity theft.
In 2005 Penn State discontinued the use of Social Security numbers for identification purposes but there were older files still on the computer. Last year, the university suffered a similar security breach when a laptop was stolen. The laptop contained archived information and Social Security numbers of 677 alumni who graduated between 1999 and 2004.
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