Former Employee Charged in Southeast Security Breach
A former Southeast Missouri State University employee has been charged in a security breach exposing 800 student names and social security numbers. The man has been indicted on charges of identity fraud and one charge of computer trespass after being found in possession of the private records in question.
According to the SouthEast Missourian, William Elum was the hall director of Dearmont during the 2006 to 2007 school year and was arrested May 27 in Atlanta. While no students have reported credit fraud as a result of the leak, Elum is accused of trying to access two student accounts.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that these data have been misused beyond the attempt the employee used to log on to our system in other students’ names,” said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president for administration and enrollment management.
Nevertheless, university administrators are recommending students place a fraud alert on their consumer credit file and also a security freeze on accounts at credit bureaus.
