Berkeley theft exposes data of 100,000

The risks of identity theft have risen in recent years as technological advances make it easier for businesses, schools and other organizations to create vast databases containing Social Security numbers, credit card account numbers and other personal information.

All that valuable data has turned the computer storehouses into inviting targets for thieves who frequently don’t have to work too hard to pull off their crimes.

Computer hackers create some of the mischief by circumventing high-tech firewalls, but 58 percent of the breaches recorded by California officials have occurred after a computer or other device containing personal information is lost or stolen, McNabb said.

The security risks of these incidents could be minimized if the caretakers of the personal information encrypted the sensitive information — a process that makes it virtually impossible to read the data without a special code.

The laptop stolen from the UC Berkeley was supposed to be encrypted this month, Felde said.

The computer, which required a password to operate, was left unattended for a few minutes in a restricted area of a campus office before someone walked in and stole it, Felde said. A campus employee witnessed the theft and reported it to university police.

Authorities suspect the thief was more interested in swiping a computer than people’s identities. Felde said there been no evidence so far to indicate the stolen information has been used for identify theft.

The stolen laptop contained the Social Security numbers of UC Berkeley students who received their doctorates from 1976 through 1999, graduate students enrolled at the university between fall 1989 and fall 2003 and graduate school applicants between fall 2001 and spring 2004. Some graduate students in other years also were affected.

The stolen computer files also included the birth dates and addresses of about one-third of the affected people.

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