Concerns raised over a missing OSU laptop computer

OSU students are worried because a laptop with thousands of students' personal information has gone missing from the Stillwater campus. <br/><br/>The university says students on both the Stillwater

Friday, April 29th 2005, 10:26 am

By: News On 6

OSU students are worried because a laptop with thousands of students' personal information has gone missing from the Stillwater campus.

The university says students on both the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses are affected. The information included social security numbers.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says OSU Campus Police are investigating. They don't know for sure that it's been stolen; only that it's missing, but that's enough to bother students.

As Michele Powell and Robyn Woods were sharing some conversation on campus. They're also wondering if someone is sharing their social security numbers. Michele Powell: "That's pretty vulnerable. That leaves you wide open for identity theft of somebody messing with your accounts."

OSU officials say they first became aware Thursday night the computer was missing, but don't know exactly how long it's been missing. They say a majority of studentâ€™s information was on the computer. They say they don't have any indication yet the information is being misused, but of course no one can say whether that will change. Robyn Woods: "It's still an inconvenience, because now I'm going to have to check my credit report several times and it might not happen soon, but this might be an ongoing thing where you have to check your credit report months from now."

All affected students like Woods should have gotten an e-mail. The News on 6 found out the computer was in a locked room but that it had to be moved when a conference needed to use the room and that at some point it went missing. At OSU, student's social security numbers also double as their student ID number. So that's why it was in the students files, but Woods and Powell don't understand why the person in charge of the laptop didn't take better care of such sensitive information.

Robyn Woods: "They used social security numbers for our ID's, which probably isn't the best idea anyway, but now with that stuff on a laptop computer that can be misplaced that easily, that's kind of careless."

OSU is actually in the process of giving students a random number for their student ID, instead of their social security number, but it hasn't happened yet.