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Yale students, faculty at risk of identity theft after computer heist

What happened? Two computers were reported stolen from the Yale College Dean’s Office on July 17.

What types of personal information? The computers contained names and Social Security numbers for about 10,000 current and former students, and about 200 current and former faculty and staff members.

What was the response? The university sent letters to affected personnel, and urged them to check bank statements and credit reports.

Details: The computers were password protected.

University officials said the PCs were likely stolen to be sold, not for the data inside.

No contacted individual has reported any misuse of the data.

Quote: “The university does not believe that this incident presents a significant danger of identity theft because the crime was almost certainly aimed at obtaining hardware for sale – not at exploiting the data that were on the computers,” the university said in a statement.

Source: Yale Daily News, Aug. 8, “Computers containing 10,000 SSNs are stolen

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