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Data breach sparks concern

2/13/2008 - Letters are going out to 555 graduates of WCU’s College of Business to inform them that personal information stored on a server used by the College of Business may have been compromised. There is no reason to believe the information has been used for unauthorized or illegal purposes, but the university quickly sent out notification letters, beginning on Feb. 11, to anyone whose name and Social Security number could have been obtained from the affected server before it was shut down, said Bil Stahl, WCU’s chief information officer.

Those notification letters include specific guidelines for recipients to protect themselves against identity theft.

“Unfortunately, misinformation about the extent of the problem is causing unnecessary concern among students and graduates whose privacy has not been compromised,” said Steve Henson, associate dean of the College of Business. People who were not students in the College of Business are not involved in this incident, and, certainly, not all WCU students and graduates are involved. “We are notifying all of the people whose identifying information might have been at risk. No one else needs to be worried about this situation,” Henson said.

Anyone with questions about the data security breach in the College of Business, should call the dean’s office at (828) 227-7412.