<p>UCLA computer administrators have discovered that a restricted campus database containing certain personal information has been illegally accessed by a sophisticated computer hacker. This database contains certain personal information about UCLAs current and some former students, faculty and staff, some student applicants and some parents of students or applicants who applied for financial aid. The database also includes current and some former faculty and staff at the University of California, Merced, and current and some former employees of the University of California Office of the President, for which UCLA does administrative processing.</p>
<p>I regret having to inform you that your name is in the database. While we are uncertain whether your personal information was actually obtained, we know that the hacker sought and retrieved some Social Security numbers. Therefore, I want to bring this situation to your attention and urge you to take actions to minimize your potential risk of identity theft. I emphasize that we have no evidence that personal information has been misused.</p>
<p>The information stored on the affected database includes names and Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and contact information. It does not include drivers license numbers or credit card or banking information.
<p>probably not - consider the fact that there are possibly 800,000 other names that were stolen. (from a news report I read). I would, however, put a fraud alert on my credit reports for the next few months.</p>
<p>^ yes. definitely. This is now the THIRD time in 2 years that crap like this has affected me. First, the year I applied for transfer, USC had a bunch of crap hacked. Then Starbucks, where I had the dubious honor of working for a year, had its computers stolen. Now this. </p>
<p>OH YAY. </p>
<p>Apparently there's a service through costco that runs ~$8/month and offers some sort of identity theft notice or uh. Something. I'm not positive of what it does, exactly, but my mom just told me to sign up for it after the Starbucks thing. I guess now I should.</p>
<p>allie, you don't need to sign up for the service. The national credit bureaus can mark your account as one with a "fraud alert". What this means, according to the FAQ at <a href="http://www.identityalert.ucla.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.identityalert.ucla.edu/</a>, is that you will immediately receive a free credit report from all 3 agencies so you can look and see if there are any suspicious things like accounts being opened in your name. </p>
<p>
[quote]
A fraud alert wont stop you from using your existing credit cards or other accounts. It may slow the process of receiving new credit, since the purpose of a fraud alert is to help protect you against an identity thief opening credit accounts in your name. Potential creditors receive a special message alerting them to the possibility of fraud, and they know they should reverify the identity of a person applying for credit.
[/quote]
Costco is a reseller of a service provided by another company. For $9.49/mos they will notify you when your address changes on credit bureau records, when new accounts are opened, and some other changes. that's almost $120/year. For some people it's worth it for the peace of mind. However everyone can get a free annual report so I'll just continue what I've been doing, asking for a report from one of the 3 companies every 4 months to look for changes.</p>
<p>I know, I check my credit reports (like, with a frequency that could only be explained by a slight proclivity towards OCD). But anyway, that makes sense. However, i think after my mom sees the Times and freaks the hell out she'll probably sign me up regardless. So oh wells. Good, I guess.</p>
<p>And is it just me and my I-Haven't-Slept-In-A-Delirium, or is this announcement timed soooo amazingly? Like, </p>
<p>DEAR UCLA, </p>
<p>OH, HAPPY FINALS! GUESS WHAT WE GOT YOU!!! IDENTITY THEFT!
YAYAYAY. </p>
<p></3 HAXXORS </p>
<p>Like, nice timing guys (times/ucla). You've only known about this FOR A YEAR. Way to lag (I realize that there was probably a reason for not releasing the information, but cmon). </p>
<p>Although perhaps we should thank them for making this the Most Momentous Quarter, Evar. </p>
<p>A retrospective: zomgTaser! #1 Basketball team. Kicking USC's ass, and hard. Kevin Smith Teaches a class, Clinto visits. Rubber Bullets, Couch Fires, and Teargas: Or Evidence That Just Because A School Is Selective Doesn't Mean That Its Student Body Has Common Sense. And finally, identity theft on a historically massive scale. </p>
<p>I know, I check my credit reports (like, with a frequency that could only be explained by a slight proclivity towards OCD). But anyway, that makes sense. However, i think after my mom sees the Times and freaks the hell out she'll probably sign me up regardless. So oh wells. Good, I guess.</p>
<p>And is it just me and my I-Haven't-Slept-In-A-Delirium, or is this announcement timed soooo amazingly? Like, </p>
<p>DEAR UCLA, </p>
<p>OH, HAPPY FINALS! GUESS WHAT WE GOT YOU!!! IDENTITY THEFT!
YAYAYAY. </p>
<p></3 HAXXORS </p>
<p>Like, nice timing guys (times/ucla). You've only known about this FOR A YEAR. Way to lag (I realize that there was probably a reason for not releasing the information, but cmon). </p>
<p>Although perhaps we should thank them for making this the Most Momentous Quarter, Evar. </p>
<p>A retrospective: zomgTaser! #1 Basketball team. Kicking USC's ass, and hard. Kevin Smith Teaches a class, Clinton visits. Rubber Bullets, Couch Fires, and Teargas: Or Evidence That Just Because A School Is Selective Doesn't Mean That Its Student Body Has Common Sense. And finally, identity theft on a historically massive scale. </p>
<p>I know, I check my credit reports (like, with a frequency that could only be explained by a slight proclivity towards OCD). But anyway, that makes sense. However, i think after my mom sees the Times and freaks the hell out she'll probably sign me up regardless. So oh wells. Good, I guess.</p>
<p>And is it just me and my I-Haven't-Slept-In-A-Week-Delirium, or is this announcement timed soooo amazingly? Like, </p>
<p>DEAR UCLA, </p>
<p>OH, HAPPY FINALS! GUESS WHAT WE GOT YOU!!! IDENTITY THEFT!
YAYAYAY. </p>
<p></3 HAXXORS </p>
<p>Like, nice timing guys (times/ucla). You've only known about this FOR A YEAR. Way to lag (I realize that there was probably a reason for not releasing the information, but cmon). </p>
<p>Although perhaps we should thank them for making this the Most Momentous Quarter, Evar. </p>
<p>A retrospective: zomgTaser! #1 Basketball team. Kicking USC's ass, and hard. Kevin Smith Teaches a class, Clinton visits. Rubber Bullets, Couch Fires, and Teargas: Or Evidence That Just Because A School Is Selective Doesn't Mean That Its Student Body Has Common Sense. And finally, potential identity theft on a historically massive scale. </p>
<p>
[quote]
However everyone can get a free annual report so I'll just continue what I've been doing, asking for a report from one of the 3 companies every 4 months to look for changes.
<p>I spent this past summer at UCI doing an intership in an NMR lab and auditing through a couple of classes - By the way, did you know that a D in the Physical Sciences department is considered "passing" at UCI. There were way too many closed-minded students at UCI. The school isn't as diverse a UCLA and quite inconvenient to get around. A few of them were always trying to convince me saying, "UCI is a good school" when I never said it wasn't. Guess a whole lot of them are still bitter about not getting into UCLA.</p>