Law Schools, Privacy, Screw-Ups, Technology

Flyover Law School Exposes Students to Potential Identity Theft Issues

Nebraska: the home of corn and campus-wide student information security breaches.

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UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA — MEMORANDUM — SECURITY BREACH

Dear Student:

We are writing to let you know of a security breach that may affect your personal information.

On Wednesday night, May 23, a security breach of the University of Nebraska’s student information system, was detected. The system contains Social Security numbers, date of birth and address for current and past students, and also for students who applied to the University of Nebraska but did not enroll.

If you applied for federal financial aid through the FAFSA process and identified one of the University of Nebraska campuses (UNL, UNO, UNK, UNMC, NCTA) to receive the results in the last three years, your personal information such as Social Security number and date of birth is stored in the University of Nebraska’s student information system. You may have been required to include parent data on the FAFSA as a part of the application process. If so, their information is included as well in our system. A small number of individuals also had bank account information associated with their account; those individuals have already been notified.

We are working with authorities and an outside security firm to help analyze the level of risk of personal information being misappropriated and to make recommendations for any additional safeguards that are needed. Authorities have identified an individual who they believe was responsible for this incident. Police have seized computers and related equipment and that equipment is undergoing analysis.

What you can do now

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1. We recommend that you contact one of the three primary credit reporting agencies to place a free Initial Security Alert (90-day) to your credit report. This can be done online or via phone and will alert you to any attempt to establish or extend credit in your name. The three companies are TransUnion (“Initial Fraud Alert”) (800) 680-7289, Experian (“Initial Security Alert”) (888) 397-3742 or Equifax (“Initial 90-day Fraud Alert”) (800) 525-6285. You need only register with one agency and the others will be alerted.

2. Follow updates on the situation and access additional resources, including a video on using fraud alerts, at our website: http://nebraska.edu/security. In addition, you can submit questions and comments regarding this incident at the website. We will monitor these comments and respond to all questions submitted as quickly as possible.

3. A telephone service center has been opened to respond to questions and concerns from those whose personal information may be vulnerable. You may call the center from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. CST Monday through Saturday at 888-215-4321.

We appreciate your patience as we work through this difficult situation.

Joshua Mauk
Information Security Officer, University of Nebraska

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