University suffers massive ID data theft
CNET News reports the theft of more than 30,000 people’s records from George Mason University in Virginia, opening up the possibility of ID theft for staff and students.
This is not, however, a one-off:
George Mason is not alone among universities in suffering a security breach. Two years ago, online intruders broke into a server containing the credit card numbers of some 57,000 patrons of a Georgia Institute of Technology arts and theatre programme, while others lifted more than 55,000 Social Security numbers from computers at the University of Texas at Austin. Last year, more than one million California residents had their personal information leaked thanks to a pair of incidents at UCLA and the University of California at Berkeley.
Identity thieves will always go for the richest targets, and the States have seen a massive increase in identity fraud since the introduction and widespread use of SSNs. If your National Identity Register Number is to become the key to your whole life, what will happen when someone steals or compromises it?
