What is the university doing to protect personal data? Is the university going to seek an outside opinion in reviewing its data security practices? Are there plans to extend the credit fraud protection program past one year? Answers to these questions concerning the recent data breach and more details - including how to protect your credit - can be found on the Web site developed especially for this incident: http://cio.osu.edu/secureinfo/research.

More than 14,000 current and former faculty and staff members are being informed that their personal data (name, Social Security number, employee ID number, and date of birth) have been exposed as a result of a criminal intrusion into a database within the university's Office of Research. A web site has been established to provide information about the incident that occurred during the weekend of March 31/April 1.

Faculty and staff who are among the approximately 14,000 whose data was stolen from a server within the Office of Research should receive a notification letter within the week. The hotline that was established to answer questions is staffed from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and the toll free number is 1-866-515-9332. It is important that you first dial a 1 if calling from home or 9+1 if calling from a campus phone. The number of operators available to answer questions about the credit watch and protection program has been expanded, and they are fielding between 50 and 60 calls per hour. If you did not receive a letter then you can contact the hotline to determine if your personal information was among the data stolen. If you contacted the hotline yesterday but were unable to get your question answered, please try again. More details - including a list of frequently asked questions, how to protect your credit, and a copy of the notification letter - can be found on the web site developed especially for this incident.

A new Web site has been created so that faculty and staff can directly determine if they were among the approximately 14,000 who were mailed notification letters about the data breach. Additional frequently asked questions addressing the timing of the notification and the delivery method have been added to the Web site: http://cio.osu.edu/secureinfo/research. Click on the FAQ link at the top.