The News:

University of Wisconsin-Madison disclosed on last Thursday evening that a campus database of former students and staff had been repeatedly hacked since 2008. The database contained 60,000 pre-2008 university photo identifications that included Social Security numbers. University notified victims about this breach by mail in a letter dated November 30. The letter sent to victims and University Website declared that there was no evidence that anyone’s information was retrieved.

The Incident Website states, “We wanted to make you aware of the incident and let you know what we have done to prevent this from happening in the future”.

This is not First Time:

This is not the first time University of Wisconsin-Madison computers are hacked. A year ago, the University determined that computers in the Chemistry Department were hacked over a several year period compromising the names and Social Security numbers of around 3,000 people. The University did not detect the breach until October 26, 2010 although Wisconsin determined that the recent hacking incident began in 2008.

The major data breaches happened in 2007 and in 2008 involved Social Security numbers. In the 2007 incident, tax forms were mailed to the 171,000 Wisconsin taxpayers with their social security numbers printed on the mailing label and in 2008 incident, a brochure was mailed to the 260,000 recipients of state health care benefits with their social security numbers printed on the mailing label.

What Officials Say:

The advisory letter said, “The University apologizes to you for this situation, we take computer and data security very seriously, making consistent and strong efforts to protect thousands of computers located on the campus.”
School’s IT department said it has reviewed all security procedures and policies and deployed network intrusion detection applications and implemented a vulnerability identification program to better safeguard student and staff data.

Protection is Necessary:

As now a day, Identity theft is an easy practice, anyone with a computer, desktop publishing and a printer can counterfeit a Social Security card with your name and Social Security number. Counterfeit cards can be sold over and over again compounding the identity theft problem with victims. A counterfeit Social security card and a counterfeit birth certificate open the door to getting employment, a driver’s license and a bank account.

So, it is very essential to protect the data of organizations related to education, health etc. that uses social security or credit card details from the people. For computer protection and data security, organizations like this can choose from a variety of services like Data Encryption Software, Hard Drive Encryption, Laptop Encryption, Full Disk Encryption etc.

How Alertsec Xpress Would Have Helped:

In an incident which highlights the need of a data security and recovery software, the threat could have simply be reduced to an insurance matter by a mere investment of $13/month. The information would have been secure with no loss what so ever. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or sensitive data.  Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subscribe for your personal 30-day free trial.

Related articles

• Server hacked at OSU; 760,000 affected (dispatch.com)
• Walgreen says customer e-mail database breached (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• McDonald’s Warns Customers about Data Breach (dvorak.org)

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