Teaching assistant puts students grades, social security numbers online

• The NIU Department of Mathematical Sciences had a scare involving students' Social Security numbers that were posted online, but university officials were quick to respond after noticing the mistake last month.
• "It was a simple mistake on the part of a teaching assistant," said Melanie Magara, assistant vice president for public affairs.
• In spring 2004, a mathematics department teaching assistant accidentally posted approximately 60 student's names, homework grades and Social Security numbers on a personal Web site instead of e-mailing the information to themselves, Magara said.
• This made the information available to anyone using the proper search engine.
• "The thing about Web sites is that even if you delete one, it's still out there," said Walter Czerniak, associate vice president for information technology.
• When university officials were notified of the situation, the search engine's cache, which held the students' information, was cleared.
• "Letters are going out to the students whose Social Security numbers were posted as a precautionary measure," Magara said.
• Although the risk of identify theft looms no one has reported anything to university officials.
• Students have been using Z-ID numbers since the early '90s, thus eliminating the need for Social Security numbers.
• The Z-ID numbers were created for access to computer systems and e-mail accounts.
• "Identity theft came about because of the advent of the Internet," Czerniak said.
• "We haven't had any outright theft that I am aware of here on campus."
• It took less than two weeks to clear the information once it was discovered.
• "When mistakes are made, the university acts quickly and lets everyone know what is going on," Magara said.