Datatheft Incident Response
UT Arlington regrets that student records were inadvertently stolen during a theft that occurred at the home of a Computer Science and Engineering faculty member on September 29th, 2006. Approximately 2,500 records were located on a computer that was stolen. These records consisted of specific class rosters from the Fall of 2000 through the Fall of 2006 and included the student’s name, attendance, grades, email address, social security number and UT Arlington ID. The Fort Worth Police were promptly notified and responded to the burglary at the residence. On Monday, October 2nd, 2006 the faculty member notified the UT Arlington Police who in turn reported the security incident to the OIT Information Security Office. Since the incident was reported to UT Arlington the University has devoted all available resources to identifying the students affected by the theft and working with law enforcement to secure the data. Unfortunately, at this time there is no confirmed suspect.
Although the number of students affected is a minimal percentage of our campus population, the University does not seek to minimize the concern raised by this incident. Accordingly, this web site makes available several communication mechanisms for concerned individuals, as well as a set of resources for monitoring credit records and protecting your identity against fraud. The Am I Affected? web page lists all of the classes that were included in the data theft. If you have had no affiliation with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and have not taken one of the listed classes then you are not affected.
If you are an affected student and have further concerns, please contact the Office of Information Technology Help Desk at (817) 272-2208 (local Dallas/Fort Worth number) and someone from OIT Information Security Office will contact you directly. The help desk is open:
- 7 a.m. to midnight on Monday through Thursday
- 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday
- 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday
- 9 a.m. to midnight on Sunday
Additionally, you can contact the OIT Information Security Office via email at datatheft@uta.edu. Note: This email address should not be used to send updated contact information to the university and DO NOT include any sensitive information such as your Social Security number in any email communication.
All members of the press or any outside entity wishing to contact the University regarding this incident please contact the UT Arlington Public Affairs Office at (817) 272-2761.
How can I update my contact information with the University?
If you are a student that is affected by this incident and believe that the University may not have your up to date contact information, please contact the Registrar's Office at either of the following phone numbers: (817) 272-0327 or (817) 272-0328.
Note: Updated contact information will take several business days to process and may not be available for the data theft notifications now being sent out. Returned mail will be resent using the updated contact information.
Please refer to our Data Loss web page for more information.