FBI, AG, Anthem to brief BSU on ID theft

• Are you at risk for identity theft? Take the test here: http://bit.ly/1PgItgy

MUNCIE – Ball State University is bringing experts from the FBI, Anthem and the Indiana attorney general’s office to campus following the thefts of at least 140 employees’ identities.

Meanwhile, the chairman of BSU’s computer science department says it is a matter of when, not if, someone will steal your name, address and at least some of your account numbers and/or your Social Security number.

“I keep hearing people ask if the two-year identity protection offered by Anthem is long enough,” Buis told The Star Press. “They ask, ‘How long will it be until we can stop worrying about identity theft?’ As a computer science, computer security and cyber crime expert, my answer is that you should have been worrying about it before this and you should never stop worrying about it.”

Anthem has confirmed that Ball State employees are among the estimated 80 million people whose personal data, including Social Security numbers, were compromised in a Feb. 4 security hack.

Since then, at least 140 BSU employees have become victims of stolen identity/tax refund fraud, though authorities have not linked the identity thefts at Ball State to the Anthem data breach.

Ball State employees who are Anthem plan members can enroll in an online identity theft and credit monitoring service at no cost to them at anthem.allclearid.com for the next 24 months. Anthem is providing the service through AllClear ID.

“The really scary thing that most folks don’t seem to understand about identity theft insurance, like that provided by the Ball State Credit Union and the one Anthem is funding for all BSU employees ... is that they don’t insure you against money that might be stolen from your bank accounts or retirement funds,” Buis said. “They only pay the expenses involved with getting your credit bureau files repaired and to pay someone to do the paperwork needed to get your existing valid credit card accounts updated — for example getting new cards issued with different account numbers — and you can’t change your Social Security number.”

Jonny Sweeny, a computer scientist at the FBI, will be on campus on April 15 to speak about the rise in tax refund fraud and data breaches occurring at the state and federal level.

Richard Bramer, director of the consumer protection division at the Indiana attorney general’s office, will speak on Wednesday about the increase in fraudulent tax filings across Indiana and elsewhere, and action being taken by the state to combat the growth in criminal activity.

On April 21-22, an Anthem account team will be on campus to discuss the recent Anthem cyber attack.

“There appears to be no way to insure yourself against actual loss,” said Buis, who earned a doctorate and a master’s degree in computer science from Purdue University.

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.