Personal data theft surprising

9/16/10 7:00pm

We at the Thresher became nervous after the discovery that a device containing sensitive information about all students employed by Rice was stolen (see story, page 1).The administration has made it clear to the student body that they take this threat very seriously and have taken measures to ensure students' information is as safe as possible. But the fact still stands that mistakes were made. Sensitive files, such as payroll information, should be encrypted; this a basic security measure that should have been enacted long ago.

Furthermore, upon learning that the device was stolen, the university made the decision to wait two weeks before informing the students of the theft. Students should have been informed immediately to give them the opportunity to begin monitoring their accounts, even if the university did not have all of the information about what exactly was stolen.

The details surrounding this breach of security have still not been fully divulged to the public. While the Thresher is alarmed by this, it is understandable that in the interest of security, some details must be withheld. This means, though, that we expect a full internal investigation to be made into this incident. There simply are no excuses, and without the ability to direct blame, students are understandably angry about this issue.

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The responsibility of keeping our information safe is one that should be taken very seriously. It is an area where students are placing blind faith in the competency of administrators. With our trust compromised, it is up to the administration to show us that blind faith is warranted.

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