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The mission of the Division of Instructional and Information Technology (I&IT) is to provide stewardship, leadership, and service to support the teaching and learning mission of the university. More...
I&IT is launching a project to delete Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and other unneeded confidential information from state-owned computers.
The project aims to rid SSNs, credit card numbers and other confidential data from user “C” drives on desktop and laptop computers. If users store their data on network share drives, their data can also be scanned and removed from there.
“If a user’s computer is compromised by a hacker, they could obtain confidential information such as SSNs and credit card numbers,” said Al Arboleda, I&IT Information Security Officer (ISO). “This is why we want to remove this data from all state-owned computers at our campus.”
Professors could be storing student SSNs on their laptops and desktops without realizing it, Arboleda said. This could have occurred when the university was using SSNs as student identifying data. The university has stopped using SSNs as student identifiers, replacing SSNs with BroncoNumbers in 2004.
“Even without scanning computers, we know we have such data on state-owned machines,” the ISO commented.
To scan computers, I&IT is using a software program called "Find_SSNs." This is also known as the "Virginia Tech tool," named after where it was developed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Instructions for using the tool that finds SSNs for Windows users are at SSNs. Instructions for using the companion program that actually deletes SSNs are at remove. Cal Poly Pomona Help Desk representatives have been trained on how to assist users and their technical support personnel on how to run the confidential information search and removal tools on their computers.
Additional programming, currently in progress, is needed to make the Macintosh version of the removal software easy to use. That is expected to be completed later this fall. When available, additional eHelp instructions will be published for Mac users.
Find_SSNs searches throughout a user’s computer looking for files that could be SSNs, credit card numbers and other potentially sensitive data.
A team from I&IT has spent more than one year searching for an effective confidential data elimination tool before picking the Virginia Tech software, Arboleda noted. To make the tool easy to use, the team “tweaked” the software so “false positives” were reduced. Arboleda explained the false positives during the testing reported numbers in the form of XXX-YY-ZZZZ as SSNs when, in fact, they were not.
I&IT is aiming to have the tool run on all state-owned computers during the fall 2008 and winter 2009 quarters. All I&IT machines were scanned by the tool in summer 2008 as a test of the removal program.
The removal team included Arboleda and Gary Pierce from the ISO’s office; and Denny Mosier, Marcy Gates, Lori Okamoto, Bill Sing and Candie McDougall from I&IT Support. eHelp and other user documentation are being developed by Angela Chung of I&IT Support.
For assistance with the Virginia Tech tool, users may contact the Help Desk 7:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays in Building 1, Room 100. The Help Desk may also be contacted during these hours by phone at 909.869.6776.
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Please CONTACT US
We will respond to your email as soon as possible. Thank you for helping us to better serve the campus.
Debra Brum
Vice President for Instructional and Information Technology
+ phone: 909.979.6300
+ email: dabrum@csupomona.edu
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This page was last updated on October 1, 2008.
