Recent incidents highlight that students are often ID theft victims. Swindlers use teenagers' Social Security numbers and other personal data to register for classes and obtain financial aid. In one case an Arizona man used this scheme to steal more than $300,000 using 50 different identities between 1999 and 2003.
College students are increasingly becoming victims of identity theft. Swindlers frequently use stolen information to fraudulently obtain financial aid. In addition, students' private data is often weakly protected that helps criminals greatly. In incident some time ago nearly 2,600 students' Social Security numbers were compromised by a security breach. However these records were accidentally stored on a public Web site. According to the Department of Education, 50 percent of grades nationally are posted by Social Security number.
Universities are committing to providing random identification numbers after the transition to a new integrated computer system. Thus administration tries to reduce using of private data in every day life. However the timeline for the upgrade is uncertain and is at least a few years away.
In recent federally prosecuted cases, individuals register for classes and obtain financial aid on behalf of someone else, drop out shortly thereafter and obtain a refund check. According to a Department of Education press release, in one case an Arizona man used this scheme to steal more than $300,000 using 50 different identities between 1999 and 2003. It's significant to note that many victims of identity theft know the perpetrator. In 11 percent of cases the thief is a relative, versus less then 10 percent for spyware, deceptive e-mails and hackers combined. To deal with the problem, universities are taking steps to ensure that everyone who has access to sensitive data receives Federal Education Privacy Rights Act training. Universities also try to control private data lifecycle and to use paper shredders for needless documents.
Р’В«I'm sure that American universities are on the right way. Unfortunately, only expensive incidents forced administrations to draw serious attention on internal information security, optimize private data using and handling, implement documents' life-time control, and educate employees. All these steps should be taken beforehand and without hurryР’В», — commented Denis Zenkin, the Marketing Director of InfoWatch company.
Source: Cavalier Daily
