Another Day Brings Another "Reported" Data Loss: 15,000 students placed at risk for an Id Theft

LITTLETON CO- Arapahoe Community College (ACC) is notifying 15,000 students that their personal information has been lost or stolen.

An ACC spokesperson tells 9NEWS that a hard copy letter detailing the loss is being mailed to all affected students Monday. The letter is in addition to an e-mail that was sent on Friday.

The e-mail indicates that a contractor who manages the student information database had a flash drive lost or stolen at Copper Mountain Resort in Summit County. A police report was filed with the Summit County Sheriff's Department on Friday.

The flash drive contained the records for students from the Corporate Learning Division and had the personal information of students dating back to 1997. The Corporate Learning Division has a small percentage of non-credit students. This does not affect students at the main campus in Littleton, according to John Scarffe with ACC.

Information on the drive included the names, addresses, credit card numbers and social security numbers for more than 5,000 students in the Corporate Learning Division. The drive did not contain the three-digit security code for the credit cards.

In the e-mail ACC President Bert Glandon apologized for the loss, "On behalf of Arapahoe Community College, I offer our sincerest apology that this unfortunate incident occurred. I assure you that safeguarding your information is one of our highest priorities."

"This was a clear violation of Arapahoe Community College and Colorado Community College System policy which prohibits storing personal information on portable electronic devices," said Glandon, "Arapahoe Community College is taking steps to ensure this does not happen again."

ACC is recommending affected students place a fraud alert on their credit which lasts 90 days. This also entitles each person to a free copy of their credit report so they can monitor activity. An alert can be placed by calling any one of the three credit agencies.

Anyone with questions or information is asked to call the ACC hotline at 303-797-5091.

Source:

For video, tips, steps and more info on how to avoid dealing with an identity theft see earlier blog: