UCLA Hacker
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
I got an email from UCLA a couple days ago saying my name, social security number, date of birth, address, and possibly other info was compromised when a sophisticated hacker broke into their system. I was like, is this for real? and tried to think of a time when I was ever affiliated with UCLA. Having never been a student there, I was stumped.
Then I realized, back in 2001 I applied to UCLA Law School, including financial aid. My info was kept in their system because I once applied for financial aid? How stupid.
The email from the UCLA acting chancellor suggests putting a fraud alert on my consumer credit file and writing the credit bureaus to request a security freeze. The freeze would prevent potential creditors and employers doing background checks from seeing my credit history without my consent.
Hm. The background check part applies to me, since I’m currently waiting for the federal government to do that very thing – get my credit report – so I can get a start date. What to do? Request the freeze so that the preliminary background check takes longer and I start work later, after the other attorneys who have been hired and possibly after going into credit card debt for lack of income? (Or in-law debt.)
Or…do nothing? I consider myself a low-probability victim of identity theft because of the uniqueness of my name. Seriously. I’ve googled my name and I am the only one that pops up – both my current name and my maiden name. I don’t know if I am more at risk now that a hacker has my info along with 800,000 other people’s, but I’d guess an ID thief would rather take their chances with a name like “John Smith” or “Christopher White.”
Here’s an article on this unfortunate incident.
Yeah, Linda got that e-mail too. I got one a year or so back from the defense subcontractor I used to work for when their systems were compromised.
You probably applied there at some point in time either for undergraduate or graduate studies. Large universities are notorious for archiving everything in horribly outdated computer systems. Unfortunately, identity theft is ridiculously prevalent nowadays. Get a free credit report from one of the three credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, Experian) and make sure there aren’t any weird accounts opened under your name. It will count as a “soft pull” against your credit so your credit score won’t suffer from checking it.
Ok, so now I figured out the whole “keep reading” link and I see that you’ve figured out why you were on UCLA’s systems. So yeah, that’s why I was pointing out what you had already said.
Hey Kevin! Thanks for the info. I’ve gotten a free credit report before – it wasn’t very detailed and I had to sign up for some kind of credit monitoring service with an annual fee. It was annoying and I canceled it after a year. I’ll try getting a free report again, though. Did anything happen after you got that email from the defense subcontractor? Any accounts opened in your name, etc.?
Dave and I have a business idea we want to run by you and Linda, when you have a moment…
Call us.
I just put a fraud alert on my credit after I got the email. I thought my name was pretty unique too but when I googled it, there were other people with similar names.
Yeah, it’s surprising. Looks like there are at least 2 other guys in the world with your name.
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