By Jamie DeLoma

Editor in Chief

Whoever is taking the faculty laptops are not taking them for their information according to Charles Griffin, the university’s information security officer.

He said the laptops require passwords to log on, and only the person who put the information onto the machines can access it.

Furthermore, Griffin said that student information is not at risk because it is not clustered on any single laptop but rather on secure servers.

Griffin said that Janice Wachtarz, the director of university applications, keeps tight control over all of the personal information on the server and is very “security conscious.”

As a common practice, Griffin said students should never give out social security numbers except on reputable places like tax returns.

He said that outside access to university servers are “severely limited to nonexistent.”

Griffin also said the possibility of someone from the inside of the university accessing the information is “slim.”

To date, there has been no sign or indication the personal information of students has been targeted.

He said “there is a big hammer waiting to fall on anyone trying to” acquire that information who should not be.

Griffin said that biggest vulernerability to private student information that he has seen is the high number of trojan viruses on student computers. He said the trojans compromise everything a person is typing and could potentially send private information to people other than those intended, such as online merchants.

When a trojan infects a computer, it comes between a user and his or her keyboard causing a high vulnerability.

The best thing that a student can to to protect their private information is by regularly scanning their computers for viruses and using common sense.