DEAR FRIEND, my name is Hassan Ibn Farouk, a merchant in Dubai. I have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and I have only a few months to live. I still have a huge cash deposit of 24 million dollars for you if you reply with all of your personal information.
Actually, I don't need to spam anyone with an elaborate story in order to gain access to your financial records and personal information, thanks to the myopic policy of using Social Security numbers for student identification.
When Social Security started, the identification number was meant to be an account identification number for Social Security purposes. However, the universal nature of the Social Security number made it readily adaptable for other forms of record keeping. As a result, with a Social Security number and other readily obtainable forms of personal data like address and birth date, one can gain access to anyone's detailed financial records and apply for credit, making that person vulnerable to fraud and identity theft.
Last week, the University admitted that 2,600 students' Social Security numbers had been placed on a Web site accessible to the public. As terrible as this admission is for students' privacy, it is probably just the tip of the iceberg as far as leaving our privacy unguarded. Anytime you forget your card and sign in to the dining hall, your Social Security number ends up on a crumpled sheet of paper floating around Newcomb Hall. The same goes for every time you use Arts Dollars. Also, whenever you purchase something with Cavalier Advantage, your Social Security number is printed in full on each receipt. If your receipt ends up on the ground or in a trash can, you may end up losing more than a piece up paper. According to the Social Security Administration, "when a dishonest person has your Social Security number, the thief can use it to get other personal information about you," and "use your number and your good credit to apply for more credit in your name."
Currently, even when your Social Security number hasn't been compromised on the Internet, it's still available to any library, dining hall or bookstore employee who might want it, or really anyone in Charlottesville with the will to look through the garbage can outside the bookstore.
Sadly, the release of students' Social Security numbers has become a disturbing trend nationwide. Earlier this month, officials at Montclair State University announced that over 75 percent of that student body's Social Security numbers had been released on the Internet for five months. In addition,according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Social Security numbers have recently been stolen by hackers from "California State University at Chico, Northwestern University, Tufts University, the University of California at San Francisco and University of California at Berkeley." In addition, last year New York University accidentally released 1,800 students' Social Security numbers. Using Social Security numbers for identification is a disaster waiting to happen, especially considering that identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America, affecting nearly seven million people per year according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
The University claims that it's committed to changing over to random student ID numbers, but such a change won't occur until the new ISIS system becomes available, which, as associate provost Anda Webb told the Cavalier Daily, is at least a few years away. Even if it were not logistically possible for the switch to take place beforehand, there are some steps the University could take such as not printing the number on Cavalier Advantage receipts and not requiring it on Arts Dollars forms.
In the meantime, concerned students can request that their ID number be changed to a random number individually, and if enough students do so, it may compel the University to act more quickly in changing the number for the entire school.
This would be a good idea, given that last week, students were greeted in their inbox with a warning about the popular social networking Web site, the facebook. The University police warned, "be aware that information posted is available to anyone with Internet access" -- that includes Hassan.
Indeed, sending scammers your personal information would be dumb. But, as the University should now know, creating situation where any student's privacy could be compromised would be 2,600 times as idiotic.
Herb Ladley is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at hladley@cavalierdaily.com
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