Virus infects data at OSU

Oregon State University is notifying 34,000 current and former employees that a computer containing some of their personal information was recently infected by a virus.

In a press release issued Wednesday, the university said its computer experts believe it is “highly unlikely that the virus put any of that information in the hands of unauthorized users.”

However, the release added, “records for many of those employed between 1999 and 2005 contained Social Security numbers as the ‘unique identifier’ in each employee’s record, and the presence of those numbers raises the potential, however remote, of identity theft.” Jon Dolan, chief information security officer for OSU, said the university doesn’t want to unnecessarily alarm anyone.