Oregon State Posts 19 Social Security Numbers Online

A public service allows those who suspect a breach of their personal information to determine if are at increased risk of identity theft.

Grounds of Oregon State University

(CORVALLIS, Ore.) - Last month, the Liberty Coalition discovered sensitive personal information of 33 students and faculty on a University of Oregon Web server, including 19 social security numbers.

Aaron Titus, Information Privacy Program Director with a group called the Liberty Coalition, says the individuals affected appear to be participants in the 2006 NASA Robotics Academy in Maryland, under the direction of Melissa Jenson-Morgan.

"The personal information, which includes names, SSNs, phone numbers, GPA, Academic Majors, and other information, was placed in an Excel file on oregonstate.edu and indexed by major search engines."

Titus says individuals on this list are at increased risk of identity theft.

"Individuals affected by this breach should immediately vist ssnbreach.org and search for their names, to confirm what types of personal information were exposed.

Who is SSNBreach.org?

Sponsored by the Washington, DC non-profit Liberty Coalition, SSNBreach.org provides hundreds of thousands of free personalized Identity Exposure Reports™ as a public service.

According to Titus, SSNBreach.org documents the types of information exposed, but does NOT contain sensitive data, such as Social Security Numbers, Birth Dates, Addresses, etc.

"Consequently, there is no way to search for your SSN or any other type of sensitive data on SSNBreach.org. Once we document the types of exposed information, and the situation surrounding the breach, we include the information in personalized Identity Exposure Reports."

Titus says this information allows victims to further investigate, take action, or correct harm.

Source: ssnbreach.org