Identity Alert Home Page

This Web site has been established to provide information about an incident that occurred during the weekend of March 31/April 1.

There was a criminal intrusion into an Ohio State database of current and former employees and some personal data—name, Social Security Number, employee ID, and date of birth—has been compromised and could be misused. Ohio State has begun notifying by letter the approximately 14,000 people affected (see Notification Letter). The University has worked hard to put into place measures to protect sensitive data, which makes this latest incident very unusual. University officials regret the inconvenience and concern caused by this illegal and fraudulent activity.

A new Web site has been created so that faculty and staff can directly determine if they were among the approximately 14,000 who were mailed notification letters about the data breach.

UPDATE ON DATA BREACH (5/2/2007)

The FAQ questions have changed to include more answers to common questions asked about the incident.

Update on State of Ohio Data Breach (8/10/2007)

Those who may have come to this web site in error looking for information regarding the recent State of Ohio Data Breach can find resources and information related to that incident at the following website:

The State of Ohio's Identity Protection program

Key Information:

An ongoing investigation has found that the names, Social Security Numbers, employee ID’s and dates of birth of 7,160 former and 6,934 current Ohio State faculty and staff were illegally retrieved by the hacker. Ohio State began notifying them on April 14 (see Notification Letter).

If you want to know whether you are among the affected individuals, call the Identity Alert Hotline that Ohio State has established. The phone number is 1-866-515-9332 or 1-614-460-7483. Operators may need to ask you for additional information, such as the month and day of your birth or the last four digits of your Social Security number, in order to distinguish you from others with the same name.

If your name is on the list, Ohio State is offering you 12 months of credit protection. Under the Equifax Gold credit watch and protection program, you will receive monitoring of the consumer credit file and email alerts to key changes within 24 hours, unlimited Equifax credit reports, and certain identity fraud expense coverage.

Regardless of whether or not you were affected by this theft, it is a good practice to contact one of the three national credit bureaus to obtain a free credit report. Federal law entitles consumers to one free credit report from each credit bureau once a year. By staggering the times at which free credit reports are ordered, consumers can monitor their own credit without incurring financial costs.

The three national credit bureaus are:

Equifax
(888) 766-0008
Consumer Fraud Division
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, GA 30374
http://www.equifax.com

Experian
(888) 397-3742
Credit Fraud Center
P.O. Box 1017
Allen, TX 75013
http://www.experian.com/fraud

TransUnion
(800) 680-7289
Fraud Victim Assistance Department
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
http://www.tuc.com

If you believe you are a victim of fraud or identity theft resulting from this theft, Ohio State and the FBI urge you to contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and submit an online report. Reports can be filed at: http://www.ic3.gov