Metro State President Stephen Jordan announced today at an open meeting for the College community and the Denver media that a laptop computer belonging to Metro State was stolen from an employee’s residence on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006.

The lap top may have contained unencrypted files with the names and social security numbers of any student who was registered for a Metro State course between the 1996 fall semester and the 2005 summer semester. This could include students from UCD or CCD who took pooled courses at Metro State; however the vast majority of names would be those of Metro State students. It is believed that more than 93,000 names would be contained in those files.

The theft was reported immediately by the employee to the Denver Police Department. College officials were notified on Monday, Feb. 27. Jordan explained that Denver Police did not authorize the College to make the public announcement until late on Wednesday, March 1, as they did not want their investigation, which is ongoing, to be comprised.

Jordan was quick to point out that there is no evidence of identify theft at this time. Plus he added, “The employee does not recall whether he had deleted those files from the laptop.”

Nevertheless, Jordan said that the College will use every available reasonable avenue to notify the affected parties, including letters to their last-known addresses.

Available resources
College officials believe it is prudent for any affected person to take advantage of the resources set up by Metro State to help people understand the potential ramifications and decide if they want to put a fraud alert on their credit report.

Those resources include a home page on the College’s Web site: www.mscd.edu/securityalert/ where people can go for the latest information. Also, the College has contracted with Business Controls, Inc., a private corporation out of Greeley, Colo. that specializes in situations like these. Business Controls is operating a toll-free phone number, 1-866-737-6622, as well as the http://www.mysafecampus.com Web site to handle questions.

Jordan added that anyone who wants to speak directly with a College official should either call the toll-free number or use the Web site to make their request known and a College employee will return their call. “Please be patient, though, as it may take some time for a personal response from us, given the large volume of people who may have questions,” he said.

Keeping the community updated
The Web site www.mscd.edu/securityalert/ will be updated regularly as information becomes available. Also, the College will periodically hold informational meetings to keep students, employees and the public apprised of new developments. The next session is scheduled for Monday, March 5, at 1 p.m. in the Tivoli Student Union, room 320.

College policy
Jordan said that the employee was authorized to have the information both on his computer at his campus work station and on the laptop. He explained that the data was being used for the purpose of writing a Title III grant proposal. The social security numbers were used to identify and track individual students and access historical information regarding these students.

The data was also being used by the employee to write a thesis for a master’s degree. The College is investigating whether the employee had obtained permission, explicit or implicit, to use the data for his thesis.

Jordan assured the audience that personal information about any student was not published in any form, rather it was being used to study enrollment trends.

He added that the College is in the process of reviewing its policies regarding laptops, particularly as it relates to information that is unencrypted.