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democratandchronicle.com
August 30, 2008
Laptop with personal information of more than 13,000 people apparently stolen from RIT
Justina Wang
Staff writer
A recently stolen laptop contained the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of about 12,700 applicants to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and another 1,100 people at Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT officials said this morning in an e-mail message to the campus community.
The laptop belonged to an employee and was stolen on Monday from an office at NTID, officials said in another message on the university Web site. People at RIT, who are not affiliated with NTID, are affected because their personal information was being used as part of a control group in an internal study, officials said.
Letters were mailed to people affected, and a toll-free hotline has been set up. RIT’s public safety department and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident. RIT officials said in their message that they don’t know whether the personal information has been accessed.
In the online message, officials said, “We share the concern and frustration that this incident has caused for our community, which is why we established a hotline, launched a thorough investigation, and have issued notifications.”
The hotline — (866) 624-8330, which can be called through a relay service — will be available from Tuesday through Sept. 26. Hotline hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
RIT is also suggesting that people who were affected call the fraud departments of a major credit bureau to place a fraud alert on their credit files. If fraud is found, people should notify police and call RIT Public Safety at (585) 475-2853.
Posted By: Esther Pinkston
Saturday, August 30th 2008 at 11:06PM
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