Editorial: No safety in numbers

‘ ‘ ‘ With the advent of the digital world and increasing amount of online shopping, banking… ‘ ‘ ‘ With the advent of the digital world and increasing amount of online shopping, banking and other services, more and more people each year become victims of identity theft. ‘ ‘ ‘ Whether data is lost, phished or simply stolen on a storage device, tens of millions of people around the world have had to deal with the financial and personal effects of having their private data stolen. ‘ ‘ ‘ And now an unknown number of alumni from the College of Business Administration who graduated between 1998 and 2006 could potentially be added to that group. ‘ ‘ ‘ According to a letter from John T. Delaney, dean of the CBA, to these alumni, a laptop containing names, Social Security numbers and demographic information was stolen from an employee’s office in Mervis Hall. ‘ ‘ ‘ The theft was reported on Aug. 11, and the letter was sent out 16 days later, on Aug. 27. During these two weeks, it’s unknown what became of the laptop, whether the data were accessed and what effects ‘mdash; if any ‘mdash; people may see in the near future. It’s also unknown what became of the employee whose computer was stolen; when asked, Pitt’s Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs Robert Hill simply said that ‘the matter was addressed appropriately.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ At this point it’s still hard to comment on the issue too heavily, since Pitt’s investigation is still pending and the administration is reluctant to release details in the event that theymay compromise the investigation. ‘ ‘ ‘ What is known is that the employee was in violation of University policy with regards to storing personal data, and that the University has advised the alumni concerned to monitor their credit closely. ‘ ‘ ‘ And while Pitt seems to be doing everything it can to rectify the situation, a question comes to mind: Why did it take the University 16 days to notify anyone about the theft of their Social Security numbers? ‘ ‘ ‘ The bottom line of this issue is that we trust a nearly absurd number of people and organizations with our sensitive personal information. ‘ ‘ ‘ From schools and employers to banks, credit card agencies and service providers, the numbers and information to allow virtually anyone to open a credit card account, checking account or loan in someone else’s name are out there somewhere. ‘ ‘ ‘ It would be comforting to know that along with instituting policies that prohibit employees from putting other people’s Social Security numbers on an insecure laptop, Pitt was actually enforcing these policies as well. ‘ ‘ ‘ Again, it’s not possible to assign any wrongdoing to Pitt itself in this case, as so many of the details are still classified. But we fully expect that when they become available, the University will share them with the public, as well as make every effort to ensure that similar situations of this magnitude are rectified and don’t happen again.