news-record.com

GREENSBORO - UNCG employees were notified today about a security breach involving a computer that contained personal information used to process the university's payroll.

Notification was sent on Monday to UNCG's faculty, staff and student employees, including former UNCG employees, who have received payment from UNCG since April. All regular UNCG employees have direct deposit for their paychecks.

"This is a very, very serious matter, and the university is taking all the necessary steps to assure the security of our employees' personal and business information," Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs Reade Taylor stated in a news release. "At this time, we are advising employees to check direct deposit accounts with their banks to ensure that no unauthorized activities, such as unknown or suspicious withdrawals, have been made.

"We believe the risk to actual data is low, but we can't take chances. We are notifying people about the situation, whether there is a risk or not."

The situation was detected on Thursday afternoon when a payroll employee received a notification of a virus alert while attempting to access data. The computer was located in the Accounting Services office. It was discovered that the computer had been infected with a virus that may have allowed an unauthorized person to gain access to personal information.

Staff from UNCG's accounting/payroll and information technology services areas are working to determine the level of access that unauthorized persons would have to employees' personal information. Material on the affected computer included names, Social Security numbers, direct deposit routing and banking account information.

The university believes the virus has been on the workstation since April. Staff members have not been able to determine whether any personal data has actually been accessed.

Steps were taken immediately to see that personal information was protected from future unauthorized access, the university stated.

A Web site, http://fsv.uncg.edu/incident, has been developed for employees to visit. Employees with questions can call (336) 334-5851 weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In addition to protective measures, the university is notifying the three major credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax.