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Laptop with 98,000 names stolen at UC-Berkeley
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March 29, 2005 (Computerworld) -- Officials at the University of California, Berkeley, are notifying more than 98,000 graduate students and applicants about the theft of a laptop computer on campus containing their names, Social Security numbers and other personal information.
In an announcement yesterday on its Web site, university officials said no reports have been received about misuse of the information.
The laptop was stolen March 11 from a restricted area of the graduate division offices, according to the university. The theft occurred when the laptop was left unattended for a brief time. A campus employee saw someone leaving with the laptop and notified the campus police, the university said.
California state law requires that "reasonable" efforts be made to contact affected individuals in data theft cases, so the university is sending letters and e-mails to all 98,369 people whose information is contained in the laptop. The university is suggesting in the letters and e-mails that those people place a fraud alert on their accounts with credit reporting agencies so that possible fraudulent use of their information would be detected.
Those affected include applicants to the graduate school between fall 2001 and spring 2004 (except law school students); graduate students who enrolled at Berkeley between fall 1989 and fall 2003; recipients of doctoral degrees from 1976 through 1999; and other small groups of individuals. About one-third of all of the computer's files contained dates of birth and/or addresses in addition to Social Security numbers and names, the university said.
Marie Felde, a spokeswoman for the university, said the March 11 laptop theft went unreported until now because the police asked for time to try to apprehend the suspect without publicizing their investigation. After two weeks, the university decided to announce the incident, she said, to warn affected students and applicants.
The machine, an IBM laptop, was located in a fourth-floor office of Sproul Hall on the Berkeley campus, which is the student administration building, Felde said. It was in an office off a corridor normally locked when the receptionist is away, but the corridor door was not locked on the day of the theft. The laptop was left unlocked for 30 to 60 minutes.
Police have a description of the thief and the serial number of the laptop, she said.
Extra security steps are being implemented at the university to prevent a similar incident, officials said. Encryption software will be used on computers that contain Social Security numbers, and building security has been increased, according to the school.
The university has been working since last fall to deploy data encryption capabilities into all laptops and other portable devices to better protect sensitive data under a new schoolwide policy that was spurred by similar data thefts in the past.
Last October, hackers infiltrated a research database that included files on 1.4 million people on a computer at the university. The files contained account information on recipients and providers participating in a program that provides home-care services to low-income elderly and disabled Californians (see story).
Last September, the disappearance of a laptop hard drive in the California State University system forced the schools to notify anyone whose personal information might have been stolen. The hard drive, which contained names, addresses and Social Security numbers for some 23,000 students, faculty members and employees at seven CSU campuses, was believed to have been accidentally thrown away after it was replaced by an IT technician (see story).
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