Ball State University has now joined the ranks of Texas A & M University, Kansas State University and University of North Carolina.
However, we aren't talking about winning awards, gaining prestige or sports teams.
We're talking about security breaches and leaks that have resulted in the records of employees and students being compromised.
On Jan. 27, Social Security numbers for 19 Ball State employees were sent out in an e-mail seeking to update contact information. Unbeknownst to the graduate assistant who was handling the information, some employees had listed their social security numbers instead of their BSU ID in a column calling for the ID number.
According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit group that strives to inform and advocate for consumers' rights, universities across the country have encountered similar accidental breaches.
While the press release from the university states they worked with University Computing Services to retract and delete the e-mails as soon as possible, the information still got out and the lives of those 19 people could become rather difficult.
Requesting credit reports, placing fraud alerts with the three main credit bureaus and closing affected accounts are just a few of the main issues these employees are facing.
The university has tried to fix the situation by reassigning who handles payroll and contact information as well as offering compensation to those employees who now must continually monitor their credit reports for 12 months.
However the main issue to address is how could this even have happened?
While the person responsible has been reassigned, the university needs to reevaluate who is allowed to handle what information. Looking back a couple years to see who has handled sensitive information previously wouldn't be a bad idea either.
According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's database of corrupted records, information for students who were enrolled in a class in Spring 2001 at Kansas State have been available through the Kansas State Web site. The glitch was noticed Friday.
The university relies on technology to get through the day and consequently must take online safety into concern as well and devote time and energy to preventing security breaches like this.
In an age where a potential 252,535,530 records have been compromised since January 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, you would think a university like Ball State would be a little more careful.
The leak of information could disrupt employees' lives for quite some time.
At least the university realized its mistake and worked to fix it.
Here's to hoping it's a lesson they only have to learn once.
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