MU monitoring impact of security breach

by Jordan Milne

May 19,2007

The University of Missouri System has set up a telephone hotline to assist employees affected by a breach of its computer system.

On May 3 and May 4, a hacker broke into a University of Missouri database, stealing the names and Social Security numbers of 22,000 current and former employees, including people who were employees of the four university campuses in 2004. The group includes 9,000 current MU employees.

Employees who think they may be affected can call the hotline toll free between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 866-241-5619. Through this telephone service, individuals can find out whether their names are on the list of affected persons. Affected individuals are then directed to www.doit.missouri.edu/computersecurity, which features a questions-and-answers page, steps for protecting personal information, and resources for the three major national credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

There were no reports of identity theft in the days after the infiltration. But employees are being encouraged to take action by flagging their credit reports, which would alert creditors of possible fraud. The university recommends regular review of credit reports, and any suspicious activity should be reported to the Missouri Attorney General's identity theft hotline at 800-392-8222.

While he was president of the UM System last year, Elson Floyd took steps toward preventing security issues by ordering that all employee social security information be removed from online databases. There has since been an ongoing effort to carry out the order, but the affected 2004 database was overlooked.

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