Data Theft 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 believe you are affected, or might be affected and that the University may not have your correct contact information, we encourage you to go to the Contact Us web page for instructions so that we are assured of an up-to-date postal mail and email address for you.