Illinois universities combat identity theft

In an effort to prevent identity theft, Illinois State University is joining other schools around the state and the nation to change student identification cards.\n"We're taking the Social Security number off the cards," said Bill Cummins, university data administrator at the school. "The Social Security number is one pry bar where someone can establish the credentials of another person."\nNearly 25,000 new identification cards will be issued this month and become effective June 1, Cummins said. The estimated cost of replacing the cards and converting the identification system is $250,000. IU has taken similar steps to combat identity theft on campus. All incoming students are now assigned a student identification number, which has no resemblance to their Social Security number.\nIllinois State is just the latest school to end the long-standing practice of including the numbers on student identification cards. Schools want to head off the kind of security breach that occurred at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where computer hackers captured the names and Social Security numbers of more than 30,000 students and staff.\nOver the last few years, the University of Illinois has moved away from a Social Security number-based identification system and instead issued school identification numbers, said Carol Livingstone, associate provost and director of the division of management information at the Urbana-Champaign campus.\nIllinois Wesleyan University began issuing identification cards last fall that have a school number instead of the Social Security number, said Fred Miller, associate vice president of information technology. Such numbers, officials say, are of no use to identity thieves.\nNorthern Illinois University stopped putting Social Security numbers on bills, identification cards or any other printed materials going to students two years ago in large part to protect them from identity theft, said spokeswoman Melanie Magara.\nAnd at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and Eastern Illinois University, officials decided to change the cards so that the Social Security numbers would be encrypted in a magnetic strip on the back rather than being printed on the front. Officials at both schools said that eventually the Social Security numbers will be removed entirely from the cards as they replace their identification systems. Students will likely be assigned school identification numbers.\n"We will eliminate Social Security numbers altogether on campus except where they deal with government," said Janice Hunt, spokeswoman for Eastern Illinois, explaining that federal law requires the numbers be used when there are financial issues involved, such as when students work for the school or receive financial aid.\nLivingstone said that while the University of Illinois continues to keep Social Security numbers where they are required by federal law, the number of people on campus with access to that information has been drastically reduced.\nSimilar efforts have been implemented around the nation. In January, for example, Penn State announced it was moving away from the use of the Social Security numbers, following the lead of schools such as the University of Wisconsin and Boston University.\nGeorge Mason was in the process of doing the same thing when the work of the hackers was discovered in early January, said school spokesman Daniel Walsch.\n"It's definitely the beginning of a trend," said Evan Hendricks, editor of the newsletter Privacy Times and author of the book "Credit Scores and Credit Reports."\nHendricks said schools realize they don't need the Social Security numbers because their own school numbers serve the same purpose and don't put students and staff at risk of being victims of identify theft.\nLast year, more than 9.9 million Americans became identity theft victims, costing the nation roughly $5 billion, the Postal Inspection Service reported.\nAmong the things the thieves can do with a Social Security number is open and use store credit cards, obtain a driver's licenses and apply for a job.\n"And if they are arrested, they can give them (police) that identification," Hendricks said. "The possibilities are endless"