The Daily Shield is very pleased to republish the following article written by Neal O’Farrell from ID Guardian. ID Guardian is the trusted source of information concerning identity exposure, identity fraud, and online security.
We’ve always known that students are just as vulnerable to identity theft as any other group. But while it was always assumed that students were more likely to become victims either because of relaxed data security at schools, or simply risky behavior by students who don’t think about security, a number of recent cases suggest that students are increasingly vulnerable to the people they trust most.
In one recent case, a former teacher at a school in Florida was charged with opening or trying to open seventeen new credit accounts using personal student information she stole from the school. It’s not clear how she got her hands on the information but it included student names, dates of birth and even Social Security numbers.
And in another case, a former University of Central Missouri police officer and his wife plead guilty to multiple counts of identity theft. The two had managed to steal a student enrollment list and used the information, including student Social Security numbers, to victimize more than 250 students and rack up fraudulent charges of more than $30,000.
That incident required the University to comply with strict data breach response measures that are likely to cost the university hundreds of thousands of dollars in breach response, investigations, victim support, and fines.
School staff isn’t the only theat. Just last January, at the very same University, a former and a current student were arrested on charges of identity theft when a file containing more than 60,000 personal records was found in their possession.
And what happened to the campus police officer whose theft triggered that massive data breach response? He received probation.
Lessons learned?
• Talk to your kids about security and identity theft, and educate them to be vigilant about how they share their personal information at school.
• Talk to the school, ask them the right questions, and satisfy yourself that they’re doing everything they should to protect sensitive student information in their possession.
• If your kids have credit reports or Social Security numbers, monitor them carefully. The last thing your kids want when applying for college is someone else’s rap sheet for fraud.
Learn more about the flexible and innovative solutions from IDENTITY GUARD®.