The University of South Carolina accidentally e-mailed a database of 1,400 students' Social Security numbers, local and permanent addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth, reported The Gamecock, USC's student newspaper.
A department chairwoman sending out information about summer classes mistakenly attached this database file to an e-mail she sent April 16. So far, the school is not aware of any misuse of the Social Security numbers, but students have been told to take precautions against identity theft, according to CNN.com.
The University of South Carolina was in the process of changing its student database, which will be complete in the fall of 2007. Students will be assigned new ID numbers.
Linda Bolden-Pitcher, AU's university registrar for the past 30 years, said a similar event has not happened at AU, as far as she knows.
However, similar incidents have occurred at other colleges across the nation. Montclair State University in New Jersey accidentally posted 9,100 students' names and Social Security numbers online for four months. At the University of California-Berkeley, someone stole a laptop containing 10,000 graduate and alumni students' Social Security numbers, according to CNN.com.
Bolden-Pitcher said AU switched from the CIS system, based on students' Social Security numbers, to the current Colleague System, which is based on the seven-digit student ID numbers, in the fall of 1999. AU changed systems to "centralize processing of data so that everyone had the same information," she said.
Jennifer Hanson, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she feels more secure with the student ID system at AU.
"I definitely feel safer with the system that American uses because they don't use our Social Security number on everything," she said. "I transferred from Fordham University in New York, and they used our Social Security numbers ... on everything. You're just worried because you don't know who might end up with one of these papers with my Social Security number on it."
Joyce Deroy, director of AU's information services, said Social Security numbers are only used to match data with federal or external sources.
"SAT numbers come in with Social Security numbers," she said. "For anything that we do that's not externally linked, we use student IDs."
Deroy said as soon as AU receives an application, they assign a sequential seven-digit identification number to the student for student records. Faculty members are assigned seven-digit ID numbers as well.
Student ID numbers are used for almost everything, including student records, housing and meal plans.
"That makes it pretty well-protected," Deroy said.
AU has an outside auditor who comes in every year to review security practices, to interview information services and to make sure everything is running smoothly, she said.
"We're constantly upgrading our security and protection of the data," Deroy said. "They are a second tier of protection."
The student ID number is preferable to the Social Security number because it is not tracked to external records, Deroy said.
"College IDs are innocuous," she said. "They are only meaningful within this one system."
Perry Sacks, a freshman in CAS, said she feels more secure knowing her student ID number is not connected to external records.
"Because the student ID number isn't linked to anything outside of school and it's really only for school use, I feel safe," she said.
However, Katie Meyers, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, is somewhat concerned with all of the student information on one identification card.
"I've never had a problem with my ID number, but the issue with having everything on your ID is if you lose it, all of your meals for your semester, all of your Eagle Bucks and all of your personal information is on one ID," she said. "I think that's a problem, and that's something that needs to be looked into."
According to Deroy, if a student ID is stolen, the thief "can't do anything fraudulent with this ID; it doesn't buy them anything."
As soon as a student ID is reported stolen, the old one is voided and a new one printed with a new sequential number, Deroy said.
