Aerospace Engineering 2

June 2nd, 2009

I am writing to inform you of a situation that could affect you. On May 29th, 2009, the Aerospace Engineering department sent a Microsoft Excel file to the Aerospace Engineering faculty and staff by email. The Excel file contained personal information. The data elements in the personal information were name, address, social security number, spouses name, cell and home phone number, date of birth and car license plate number. The faculty and staff affected were notified immediately of the error and instructed to destroy the information.

While there is no indication that your private information was accessed, we are sending you this information consistent with California Civil Code 1798.29, commonly referred to as SB 1386. We consider any breach of our computer security a serious matter.

While we cannot advise you on how to proceed, one option you have is to contact one of the credit reporting agencies, each of which has an automated phone-in fraud alert process. To understand the effects of a fraud alert, please visit this Fact Sheet on Credit Freeze and Fraud Alerts.

Contact information for the credit agencies is listed below:

• Equifax - 800.525.6285 - http://www.equifax.com/
• Experian - 888.397.3742 - http://www.experian.com/
• Trans Union - 800.680.7289 - http://www.transunion.com/

Once you receive your credit reports, review them for any suspicious activity. If you see any accounts you did not open or incorrect personal information, call the credit bureau(s) or your local law enforcement agency (e.g., city police department) to file a report of identity theft. The following resources can provide additional information about identity theft:

• California Attorney General's Office – http://oag.ca.gov/idtheft/facts/top-ten​
• The Federal Trade Commission – http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft
• California Office of Privacy Protection
  • http://privacy.ca.gov/cover/identitytheft.htm
  • http://privacy.ca.gov/cover/consumerinfo.htm

The Aerospace Engineering Department, College of Engineering, and Cal Poly take security of personal data seriously. Steps have been taken to assure that this does not happen again which include properly destroying the Excel file which contained the personal information and no longer collecting personal information of faculty and staff.

If you have questions, please contact Dr. Eric Mehiel at 805.756.7537 or emehiel@calpoly.edu.