Army ROTC Releases 551 SSNs Online
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 26, 2007Media Contact: Aaron Titus
(202) 669-2969
FORT MONROE, Virginia. On November 3, 2007 the Liberty Coalition discovered files online that contain sensitive information for 4,057 former ROTC scholarship winners from across the country, including 551 Social Security Numbers. The remaining files contain full names, academic majors, schools, scholarship award and suspense information, and other information for 3,506 individuals. It is unclear whether any of this information is protected by FERPA.
The ROTC website's Privacy Policy states that "All information provided by military sources on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied." By making Students' names and Social Security Numbers available online, apparently as "public information," the ROTC put these individuals at severe risk of identity theft.
The Liberty Coalition was unable to determine how long the files were available online, but they were created or last modified as early as November 27, 2006. The file containing the most sensitive information was confirmed removed from the website on November 6, 2007. However, the information remained in Google's search engine caches until mid December, 2007.
Individuals affected by this exposure should immediately visit www.nationalidwatch.org and search for their names, to confirm what types of personal information were exposed. NationalIDWatch.org has a list of recommended steps victims should take.
About NationalIDWatch.org
National ID Watch is a search engine for personal information breaches. Sponsored by the Washington, DC non-profit Liberty Coalition, NationalIDWatch.org provides more than a million free personalized Identity Exposure Reports™ as a public service.
Each Identity Exposure Report (IXR) documents what types of personal information were exposed (such as Social Security Numbers, Birth Dates, Addresses, etc.), without revealing them. Each IXR also details the situation surrounding each exposure, and contact information of those responsible for the breach. Armed with this information, victims can further investigate, take action, or correct harm.