http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060217/SPORTS0207/60217017/1001 By LISA LIVERMORE REGISTER AMES BUREAU February 17, 2006 About 6,000 employees at the University of Northern Iowa were advised in a letter to protect themselves from identity theft by contacting credit reporting agencies and initiating fraud alerts after a security breach was detected last week on a laptop computer at the university, officials said Friday. The laptop, assigned to the UNI's Office of Business Operations, contained Internal Revenue Service W-2 forms for student employees, faculty and staff. UNI officials said a virus was detected on the laptop, which was being used to review how the forms would look like when they were being printed. Tom Schellhardt, vice president for administration and finance said officials found no evidence to suggest personal information was accessed. Even so, everyone with data on the computer was sent the advisory letter along with a recommendation to monitor their personal financial information to ensure their accounts have not been tampered with. Steve Moon, director of network services at UNI, said the person who used the laptop computer did so to review the print jobs for the W2 forms. "There had been problems with printing, and the person wanted to review what the print stream was trying to do," he said. Even so, he said it's risky to put sensitive information on a laptop. "Certainly it's more at risk just to be stolen," he said. "It would be much easier to pick up a laptop and stick it in your backpack than a desktop would be." A. Frank Thompson, a UNI professor of finance, said he didn't think W2 forms should be on the computer at all, because the information must be made into a hard copy anyway for tax purposes. Also, "it simply opens up the possibility of that information being inappropriately accessed," he said. _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org
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