Iowa State University officials announced this week that their computers had been hacked and personal information including Social Security numbers of 30,000 present and former students of the university were compromised.  The university will be sending an email notification to affected individuals this week.  This is just the latest instance of a college or university being hacked.  It also is another breach in which the university still maintained personal information in its data banks on former students although the university had absolutely no reason to maintain Social Security numbers for such students.  As I have told you many times previously, you are only as safe as the places with the weakest security that hold your personal information.

TIPS

If you are a student or former student of Iowa State University I urge you to contact the school and not wait to be notified in order to learn if you were affected by this latest data breach.  I also urge you to put a credit freeze on your credit report so that even if someone has access to your Social Security number, they will not be able to access credit in your name.  With so many places with weak security  holding personal information including Social Security numbers on all of us, I urge everyone to consider putting a credit freeze on your credit report.  You can find directions how to do it by going to the Scamicide archives.