Stolen Yale Computers Contained 10,000 SSNs
According to the Yale Daily News, Yale University alerted 10,000 current and past students, as well as 200 staff, that two computers stolen from the College Dean's Office July 17 contained their social security numbers.
While the theft does expose the students and staff to potential identify theft, campus representatives said that the computers were password-protected, that thieves most likely stole the computers to sell the hardware rather than the data, and stolen computers typically have their hard drives scrubbed to conceal their origin.
“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,” Yale added in a statement.
