FRESNO (KMJ) — Approximately 15,000 people associated with Fresno State are being warned to keep a close eye on their credit reports, after a hard drive containing sensitive information was stolen from campus.
Officials released a statement Tuesday revealing that former student athletes, sports-camp attendees, and Athletic Corporation employees, are all affected. The external hard drive was reported missing on January 12th.
“What we wanted to do is make sure we could positively identify all those who were affected before we started with the notifications,” explained Chief Information Officer Orlando Leon. “So that literally took us up to today [Tuesday] when we made the official release.”
Fresno State revealed data on the stolen hard drive could include names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, full or last four digits of Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, user names and passwords, health-insurance numbers and personal health information.
“The University is addressing this incident as a top priority to ensure that all affected parties have been notified and that information and applicable resources are made available,” said Leon. “Though this appears to be an isolated incident, we take any data theft very seriously.”
Fresno State added that staff are being reminded how to properly store confidential information. The data on the stolen hard drive was not encrypted.
“We are reinforcing the policy to make sure that we encrypt everything from here on out, especially portable hard drives and flash drives,” added Leon.
A helpline has already been set up; those concerned can call 877-646-7924 between 6am to 6pm PT. A police investigation is also underway.
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
