June 24, 2009
By Mike Wayman
This week at Cornell University, the theft of a laptop computer resulted in the loss of 45,000 records of former and current employees as well as students. These records contained social security numbers as well as other personal records. While Cornell is not disclosing where the laptop was stolen from this story underscores the importance of corporate security in the modern age.
There is no doubt in my mind that the intent of the thief is nothing less than nefarious. It is quite simple to take personal information of this nature and use it for identity theft. Accessing this much information at once makes it easy for identity thieves to perpetrate fraud on a massive scale.
Should we expect each of the 45,000 former and past employees as well as students to immediately call all of their creditors and cancel all of their accounts? Does Cornell have the manpower to quickly respond to each and every person whose identity was stolen? The answer is: most likely not.
While I am not blaming Cornell University for being responsible for the lack of security I am trying to underscore just how important corporate security really is. When you go to work or go to school you provide a great deal of information to your employer or school and it can be very difficult to keep everything under lock and key. My hope is that the University finds the source of the security breach quickly and also learn how the data may have been distributed as soon as possible for the sake of the past employees, current employees and students.
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I heard about the theft at Cornell. Does anyone know if the thieves are usoing the info to perpetrate fraud yet?