Some students go to college to learn more about themselves, to discover their identities. Others go to college and create a new identity, making a break with their past. None could fairly be said to go to college in order to lose their identity, or worse yet, to have it stolen.
But our colleges and universities are the most fertile fields for the cultivation of identity theft, our nation’s fastest-growing crime. Our campuses are home to rampant, careless use of sensitive identifying information.
Such theft occurs when someone else uses your name and other identification, almost invariably your Social Security number, to obtain fraudulently money, goods or services.
A recent Federal Trade Commission report notes a 41 percent increase in this crime last year, with 10 million Americans victimized. Credit records can be ruined, bank accounts pilfered and home ownership jeopardized.
In its most horrendous form, identity theft becomes a major weapon for drug traffickers and terrorists.
October’s issue of Consumer Reports notes that an al-Qaida group in Spain opened bank accounts and paid for phones and travel with stolen identity information.
The above cited statistics with their daunting possibilities and international repercussions seem worlds away from college campuses where partying, studying, socializing and dreaming about tomorrow (literally) occupy young adults.
Not so. For the last decade I have watched a disturbing trend grow to menacing proportions.
I have been strident in my warnings against it: Social Security numbers, especially for college students, were becoming universal identification numbers.
Developments in computer software were driving us toward that prophesied day when everyone would have a universal identifier, able to unlock every vital piece of information that should be private.
Nowadays, the Social Security number, our most private identifier, is routinely used at college campuses and even in college towns for the most trivial reasons – for example, on receipts for the purchase of snack foods.
Students don’t seem to care. Worse yet, they are largely oblivious to the dangers that can affect them for many years.
Parents have no inkling of where their own Social Security numbers and other private information may wind up in the various databases used in higher education systems. The situation is outrageous.
I asked my students to do some Internet research about this issue and to contact friends at various institutions to learn of conditions beyond their own campus.
Some results of student contacts follow.
Rutgers University uses Social Security numbers as ID. Students put Social Security numbers on tests for identification.
At the Rutgers Newark, N.J. campus, the Social Security number is also used often on homework submissions and for attendance purposes.
The University of Georgia uses it for ID, for registration and for the meals program.
At NYU, some homework assignments require Social Security numbers.
George Mason University in Virginia uses Social Security numbers for sports programs and fraternity membership.
At George Washington University in Washington, D.C., a student reports her Social Security number isn’t secure at all. She has to write it on every test she takes. And she worries about it.
One case among many can serve as the horror story for this computer age of massive databases and invasion of privacy. Criminal charges were brought against a Boston College student for illegally obtaining the personal data of students and faculty.
He began by hacking into computer hard drives of more than 100 students. After some more hacking, this entre led to Social Security numbers and other private information of some 4,800 students and faculty.
In light of the reports, it is truly alarming to learn from a www.BankRate.com article that 48 percent of college students nationally have grades posted with Social Security numbers.
Fortunately, some schools have avoided or eliminated the problem.
The University of Pennsylvania issues random-number IDs.
Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Wash., just changed to random-number ID last year.
At the University of Nebraska, students can actually have their number expunged from the system.
And what about Boston College? Today, it has a new random number system for student identification.
At my own institution, we were using Social Security numbers as an ID.
This year, usage began to proliferate to other areas. I was extremely disturbed by this trend and, at our first faculty meeting this October, I proposed a motion that we immediately cease using Social Security numbers for exams.
The measure passed.
We will have random-number IDs in the fall of 2004.
Is the changeover a difficult one?
Well, one of my brilliant computer science students said a good hacker with the school’s cooperation could do it in five hours!
But Frank Bell, president of Los Angeles-based IT Strategies has worked on university databases.
He says, “The hours add up in the testing process to make sure every aspect of the system works flawlessly.”
The potential for massive identity thefts on college campuses should be eliminated.
I have written to all federal and state representatives expressing my concerns and I urge all interested citizens to write to theirs.
Success is possible. New York State’s legislature passed a law restricting college Social Security number use in 2001; Washington state followed suit in 2002.
Illinois, Arizona and Rhode Island have also taken action in the matter.
There are college students and organizations who are interested in taking action and are doing what they can to stop identity theft on their own campuses.
For these students, it is a matter of maintaining their good name and their personal identity.Silvio Laccetti is a professor of humanities at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He can be reached by e-mail at slaccett@stevens-tech.edu.

(c) 2003, Silvio Laccetti
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