The third time is the charm. Or is it three strikes and you're out? As Ohio University continues to deal with the implications of three separate incidents of data theft in the past month, students, faculty, staff and alumni of this university have been forced to take precautions to protect themselves from identity theft. Right now, the Social Security numbers, names and dates of birth of at least 137,000 alumni and 60,000 former and current students are somewhere in cyberspace or in the hands of a potential criminal.
It would be easy to rant and rave about how the university has failed those who support it by not properly safeguarding such sensitive personal information. It would be simple to call for the heads of those in charge of network security. It would be effortless to demand that the university take responsibility and compensate individuals should their identity be stolen due to the university's negligence.
But none of that would provide adequate comfort '-
Miami and others to learn from their experiences with data theft and improve data security.
That's all well and good, but this partnership should have come before OU became a victim. The administration had more than 25 valid reasons to ensure that OU didn't become another statistic. They had more than a year to update its system with the proper security measures. Whether through oversight, negligence, a false sense of security or any other means, OU has failed to protect those closest to it. And although there have yet to be any reports of identity theft stemming from the breach, the damage is done.
Only time will tell if the alumni, faculty, staff and students will be able to forgive this failure, or trust the university with such information ' or donations ' again. 17
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Other colleges' breaches not an excuse
