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<p>I think it has been longer than that. Rumors have been going around in the dorms and classes for sometime now.</p>
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<p>Makes you wonder why they waited so long to say anything.</p>
<p>No need to cause panic. It’s only that we now know for sure the possibility of identity theft lies dormant in the future. Hurray!</p>
<p>I don’t understand why such confidential information was stored on a public webserver - very bad security practice.</p>
<p>Yup, no need to panic just:
**
Place a free 90-day fraud alert on-line:**</p>
<p>[Equifax</a> Online Help: How to Set a Fraud Alert](<a href=“http://www.fraudalerts.equifax.com/]Equifax”>http://www.fraudalerts.equifax.com/)
**
Get all free three credit reports from one-site**</p>
<p><a href=“Annual Credit Report.com - Home Page”>Annual Credit Report.com - Home Page;
<p>More resources and news about the datatheft:</p>
<p>[Data</a> theft: UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://datatheft.berkeley.edu/]Data”>http://datatheft.berkeley.edu/)</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a UCB student and received the email. I called to hotline and they confirmed my name was on the list. This happened to me before in 2004 when a laptop was stolen at UCB with all the graduate student info (social security #s, etc.). If a class action lawsuit has not already been started, I want to start one. </p>
<p>It may seem like no need to panic, or not a big deal, but I have been dealing with identity theft and it is a serious life consuming pain. I did not receive my stimulus check, my tax refunds, they are using my number for jobs, I have been filling out forms, fax, send, blah blah for over a year know and I even have a taxpayer advocate from the IRS. Because of rampant identity theft the IRS just implemented a new system to flag filed taxes that have been associated with identity theft. The bad news, they have yet to figure out what to do when taxes are flagged. This means they hold your money until they figure out how to tell the real you from the person who is pretending to be you. Long story short, this is messy and ends up sucking hours and hours and hours of time. Please be aware that this is not just a casual problem. A 90 day alert is not really enough. You have to keep doing this every 90 days. You can also do a longer one for a few years, but it freezes everything. With all that said, you must contact these agencies, also Social security AND the Federal Trade Commission and alert them that your identity might have been compromised. </p>
<p>I am going to look into the Lawsuit next week. Hopefully, someone has already started one because each and every student should be compensated for his/her time and stress because of this. This is the 3rd time it has happened that I know of (since I have been at UCB). This is RIDICULOUS.</p>
<p>Yes ITheft is a huge problem, but most people probably have not been faced with identity theft yet… so I don’t know if you would be able to gather enough people to do class action…</p>
<p>Plus, maybe the University had the appropriate measures in place, but these hackers were very skilled and intent on getting that data…</p>
<p>If your interested in starting/joining a class action lawsuit against UCB, contact me at <a href="mailto:UCBClassActionLawsuit@gmail.com">UCBClassActionLawsuit@gmail.com</a></p>
<p>If you know of one already started, let me know so I can join! Thanks!</p>
<p>If 160,000 people’s info have been compromised, I’m hoping that enough people can form a class action lawsuit. I’m sick of UCB and their slacker ways! 3 times since I’ve been at UCB is enough!</p>
<p>Agreed! Something definitely needs to be started to compensate those who have been wronged. I haven’t heard of this happening in other places so there definitely has to be something wrong here. I mean, if it had been my own fault, fine. But this makes me so angry because it wasn’t even my fault and yet I’m suffering from it. Hopefully, nothing too bad happened but knowing my luck, I’m probably screwed.</p>
<p>I would hate to be a victim of ID theft but more blame should be on the hackers rather than the system. If there were lax security procedures and insufficient protocols in place than it’s a different story…</p>
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<p>From what I’ve read… all the stolen information was stored on a webserver publicly accessible to the internet and all that was needed to break in was a relatively simple SQL injection. That’s absolutely lax security procedure if true.</p>
<p>It was unencrypted too for easier access…</p>
<p>and btw, my post about not needing to panic was sarcasm at its finest. With the internet, who knows where the hell you’re ssn will be in a matter of minutes.</p>
<p>If that’s true and there is a good chance of winning, it could take quite a while to get settled. I imagine the legal costs would be quite high for both sides… someone needs to do a cost benefit analysis, but Cal has been good to me so I wouldn’t try and sue the hell out of it.</p>
<p>The Tang center really needs to improve it’s quality of services though…</p>
<p>Do we really want to sue our own university? I fail to see what damages we can claim unless this event actually leads to the theft of our identity.</p>
<p>Obviously, you have not dealt with identity theft. If you want to wait around until you have ruined credit, someone is using your info to get jobs, your social security records are tampered with, you have your taxes held, do not receive your refunds, etc. then it will be too late. You have to maintain your info constantly after something like this happens. I have been dealing with all of the above since the last UCB theft. I take it seriously and YES, I think that everyone should be compensated for their time and stress as a result of this. Once your identity has been stolen IT RUINS YOUR LIFE. I am experiencing it now. It affects everything I do. I understand that unless you go through it, it’s easy to just think “why would we want to sue?” I would probably be saying the same thing if it didn’t happen to me.</p>
<p>Batman, Haa. Sorry, I see your irony. You are absolutely right.</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that this can lead to bad stuff happening to us in the future. I am still wary about suing for it though. How would you even put a dollar amount on these potential damages?</p>
<p>I’m sorry you’re dealing with identity theft. I’m probably more afraid of identity theft than getting mugged on the streets of Berkeley, but I don’t see enough incentive to sue the university. I hesitate to chant the “sue sue sue” mantra that Americans so often hold dear whenever something goes wrong.</p>
<p>The university provides a great value education and I wouldn’t want to strain it fiscally because I speculate Identity theft could happen to me. Plus whatever compensation to the 160,000 or whatever number in a class action could be put to better use upgrading their IT security.</p>
<p>wow, you are certainly optimistic. The University provides good education, but for a hefty price. I’m not going to get into the crazy amounts of money that is spent on sports facilities, etc instead of security. I just received a check from a class action suit against UCB because they illegally charged graduate students an amount more than they were supposed to. If someone had not done something about it, the University would just keep ripping off students. The University has had 3 MAJOR security breaches involving hundreds of thousands of social security numbers, etc. in the past 4 years. Each time, nothing is done. If a class action lawsuit was filed against them, it would force them to change their ways. They have done nothing about the other breaches and will continue to be slack until we say we are not going to take it anymore. It’s not even about money. But, if a few bucks can help compensate the extra time and stress this gives students who struggle to pay tuition and simultaneously work and try to get an education, then I am all for it. Maybe it doesn’t mean much to younger students who don’t deal with their own bills, payments, etc. but to those of us who fend for ourselves, it means a lot.</p>