EPISD Info Leak: How To Protect Your Children From Identity Theft

You might not think children could be susceptible to identity theft, but kids can be just as vulnerable as adults.

The recent hacking of the El Paso Independent School District’s internal network allowed computer thieves access to data on both students and teachers, including names, addresses and Social Securitynumbers.

But what should you do if your child is one of the 63,000 students whose personal information could be up for grabs?

What To Do If You Or Your Child’s Data Has Been Leaked:

The first thing to do is order credit reports for your child from all three credit reporting agencies and place a fraud alert or freeze on each one.

TransUnion: For credit report information, go to the TransUnion website or call 800-680-7289.

Experian: For credit report information, go to the Experian website or call 888-397-3742.

Equifax: For credit report information, go to the Equifax website or call 800-525-6285.

The 90-day fraud alert can be placed on the account, which will alert creditors to verify your identity during this period if someone is trying to issue credit in your name. This is free and can be renewed.

A credit freeze can also be requested, which prevents anyone from requesting your child’s credit score until the freeze is released. If you are a victim of identity theft, the freeze is free. If not, the charge in Texas is $10 to place, lift, or remove the freeze. The cost is $12 to lift it for a single creditor.

Both the fraud alert and the credit freeze can be placed by going to each credit report website above.

Preventative Measures To Make Sure Your Information Doesn’t End Up In The Wrong Hands

If a registration for asks for a child Social Security number, it might not be required. Call the school district and see if the child can be issue a different identification number instead of using their Social Security number.

Teach your children not to give out important personal information unless it is required.

What Are Other School Districts Doing To Make Sure Data Is Safe?

Socorro Independent School District Xavier DeLaTorre, superintendent of the Socorro Independent School District, told ABC-7 that his offices have three separate firewalls to get into the system’s intranet to access students data. It also has one person on full-time to monitor those systems and remove access to the data if a breech is detected. DeLaTorre also added that the employee data is encrypted, though the student data is not. DeLaTorre also said that the school system has the best system available for keeping those who don’t belong in the system out.

Ysleta Independent School District: Officials from YISD told ABC-7 that the system had a three-tiered protection system to ensure safety of student’s data. There are firewalls as well as data encryption for extra protection. Also, YISD does not require that parents give children’s Social Security numbers to register. If the Social Security number has already be entered in the system, it can be removed.

Las Cruces Independent School District: Officials from Las Cruces Independent School district said that, as of four years ago, they no longer ask for student’s Social Security numbers and use a different ID number instead. For the data they already have stored, it is protected by firewalls and encrypted.

Canutillo Independent School District: Officials from the Canutillo Independent School District said they have had a layered security program for years to protect their students and faculty. They didn’t want to go into too much detail about the system, fearing it could help someone who wanted to attack the system, but said that both software as well as human security measures are in place. The data is also encrypted for further protection.

Clint Independent School District: CISD told ABC-7 that it makes every effort to ensure their data is secure by using a combination of firewalls and other security measures to separate the internal network from the public Internet.