Re: University of MD mails 24000 SSN on front of envelope

["Michael Hill, CITRMS" <mhill () idtexperts com>]

Lack of education and training given to employees, contractors and service 
providers to help spot security vulnerabilities.  Periodic training 
emphasizes the importance you place on meaningful data security practices. 
A well-trained workforce is just as important defense against identity theft 
and data breaches as are physical and electronic security.

In this case, I cant believe nobody in the whole process did not spot the 
SSN or at least question it when seeing a 9 digit number.  Training 
certainly could have uncovered this, though we will never know.




Michael Hill | T3i
Director Risk Management & Compliance
Direct: 404.216.3751 | mhill () T3i com |
www.T3i.com
INFORMATION SECURITY | RISK MANAGEMENT | COMPLIANCE | FORENSICS | TRAINING



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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kim Z. Dale" <k-dale () northwestern edu>
To: <dataloss () attrition org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Dataloss] University of MD mails 24000 SSN on front of 
envelope


> It seems odd to me how many incidents of SSNs printed as part of a mailing
> address occur.  Are all these places using the same software, or are 
> people
> just that bad at mail merge?  It seems like an odd thing to happen across
> multiple organizations.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dataloss-bounces () attrition org 
> [mailto:dataloss-bounces () attrition org]
> On Behalf Of Henry Brown
> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:42 AM
> To: dataloss () attrition org
> Subject: [Dataloss] University of MD mails 24000 SSN on front of envelope
>
> From The University of MD Independent Daily Newspaper
>
> http://tinyurl.com/6j6rhv
>
> Social security numbers of students registered for fall 2008 classes,
> totaling nearly 24,000, were inadvertently printed on mailing labels for
> a parking brochure, the Department of Transportation Services said in an
> e-mail to students today.
>
> "The University apologizes, and deeply regrets this unfortunate mistake.
> We are taking aggressive steps to ensure that this does not happen
> again. We strongly recommend that you take appropriate precautions to
> mask, black out, or destroy this document after use," said the e-mail,
> signed by DOTS Director David Allen.
>
> The mailings were sent July 1, but the mistake was not discovered until
> July 8, when students began calling DOTS to complain, according to a
> website set up by DOTS specifically for this incident. The website can
> be found at http://www.transportation.umd.edu/parkingmailer/.
>
> The university is not aware of anyone's social security number being
> misused, added DOTS in the e-mail.
>
> The university will offer free Equifax reports to affected students, at
> a cost to the university of about $23 a person, said Vice President for
> Student Affairs Linda Clement. With Equifax, the students can monitor
> their credit or place a fraud alert on their account.
>
> Clement explained that when a DOTS employee collected names and
> addresses for the brochure, social security numbers and e-mail addresses
> would have appeared in the search, but were supposed to be removed from
> the labels. DOTS saw the e-mail addresses on the labels but didn't
> identify the social security numbers because they were not separated by
> the typical two dashes, she said.
>
> The incident is under investigation and the person involved has not been
> fired, Clement added. The delay in notifying students was due to the
> legal office negotiating a deal with Equifax.
>
> "We sincerely regret it," Clement said. "This is just an awful
> situation; we're trying to do everything we can to mitigate it."
>
> A letter explaining the situation and offering remedies will be sent to
> students Friday or Saturday, said Ann Wylie, the university president's
> chief of staff.
>
> "We were horribly upset that this happened," she said. "It was a human
> error."
>
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traffic to find the data needing protection before it leaks out!
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