IDENTITY THEFT PROTECTION PROGRAM

Effective: August 15, 2024

Purpose: Some activities of the University are subject to the provisions of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) and its “Red Flag” rules and are therefore subject to the University’s Identity Theft Prevention Program ("Program"), created pursuant to the Federal Trade Commission's (“FTC”) Red Flags Rule, which implements Section 114 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003.

Under the Red Flags Rule, the University is required to establish an “Identity Theft Prevention Program” tailored to its size, complexity and the nature of its operation. Each Program must contain reasonable policies and procedures to detect, identify, and mitigate identity theft in its covered accounts. The University must incorporate relevant Red Flags into the Program to detect and respond to potential identity theft. The University must ensure the Program is updated periodically to reflect changes in risks to customers, students, creditors, or the University from Identity Theft.

Scope: This policy applies to the University campus wide.

Responsible Office: Business and Finance

Policy Statement: The President shall designate a senior University official to serve as Program Administrator and who will Chair the Identity Theft Committee. The Program Administrator shall report regularly to the President on the Program and appropriate and effective oversight activities.

In order to identify relevant Red Flags, the University considers the types of accounts that it offers and maintains, methods it provides to open its accounts, methods it provides to access its accounts, and its previous experiences with Identity Theft. The University identifies the following items could be considered potential Red Flags in each of the listed categories, which employees should be aware of and monitor for:

Notifications and Warnings from Credit Reporting Agencies

• Report of fraud accompanying a consumer report;
• Notice or report from a consumer agency of a credit freeze on a customer or applicant;
• Notice of report from a consumer agency of an active duty alert for an applicant;
• Receipt of a notice of address discrepancy in response to a consumer report request; and
• Indication from a consumer report of activity that is inconsistent with an applicant’s usual pattern or activity.

Suspicious Documents

• Identification document or card that appears to be altered or forged;
• Identification document or card on which a person’s photograph or physical description is not consistent with the person presenting the document;
• Other document with information that is not consistent with existing customer or student information; and
• Application for service that appears to have been altered or forged.

Suspicious Personal Identifying Information

• Identifying information presented that is inconsistent with other information the customer or student provides (e.g., inconsistent birth dates);
• Identifying information presented that is inconsistent with other sources of information (e.g., an address not matching an address on a loan application);
• Identifying information presented that is the same as information shown on other applications there were found to be fraudulent;
• Identifying information presented that is consistent with fraudulent activity (such as an invalid phone number or fictitious billing address);
• Identifying numbers, i.e., Social Security numbers, student ID numbers, international documents or other identifying information presented is the same as one given by another customer or student;
• An address or phone number presented that is the same or similar to the address or phone number submitted by an unusually large number of other persons;
• A person fails to provide complete personal identifying information on an application when reminded to do so; and
• A person’s identifying information is not consistent with the information that is on file with the University.

Suspicious Covered Account Activity or Unusual Use of Account

• Change of address for an account followed shortly by a request to change the customer or student’s name;
• Payments stop on an otherwise consistently up-to-date account;
• Account used in a way that is not consistent with prior use;
• Mail sent to the customer or student is repeatedly returned as undeliverable;
• Notice to the University that a customer or student is not receiving mail sent by the University;
• Notice of the University that an account has unauthorized activity;
• Breach in the University’s computer system security; and
• Unauthorized access to or use of customer or student account information.

Detecting Red Flags 

New Accountings (including Student Enrollment)

In an effort to detect any of the potential Red Flags identified above associated with establishing a new Covered Account and including enrollment of a student, University personnel will take the following steps to obtain and verify the identity of the person opening the account:

• Require certain identifying information such as name, date of birth, academic records, home address, or other identification;
• Verify the individual’s identify at time of issuance of identification card (review of driver’s license or other government-issued photo identification); and
• Independently contact the customer or student.

Existing Accounts

In an effort to detect any of the potential Red Flags identified above for an existing Covered Account, University personnel will take the following steps to monitor transactions on an account:

• Verify the identification of individuals if they request information in any format and no response should be made via email or other insecure method;
• Verify the validity of requests to change billing addresses by mail or email and provide the individual a reasonable means of promptly reporting incorrect billing address changes; and
• Verify changes in banking information given for billing and payment purposes.

Consumer (“Credit”) Report Requests

In an effort to detect any of the potential Red Flags identified above for an employment or volunteer position for which a consumer or background report is sought, University personnel will take the following steps to assist in identifying address discrepancies:

• Require written verification from any applicant that the address provided by the applicant is accurate at the time the request for the consumer report is made to the consumer reporting agency; and
• In the event that notice of an address discrepancy is received, verify that the consumer report pertains to the individual for whom the requested report was made and report to the consumer reporting agency an address for the individual that the University has reasonably confirmed is accurate.

Preventing and Mitigating Identify Theft 

In the event University personnel detect any identified Red Flags, such personnel shall respond by taking one or more of the following steps, depending on the degree of risk posed by the Red Flag:

• Notify the Program Administrator for determination of the appropriate step(s) to take;
  Continue to monitor a Covered Account for evidence of Identify Theft;
• Contact the customer, student, or applicant (for which a credit report was run);
• Change any passwords or other security devices that permit access to Covered Accounts;
• Not open a new Covered Account;
• Close an existing Account;
• Provide the customer or student with a new customer or student identification number;
• Notify law enforcement, KBOR, or other entities and individuals as appropriate;
• File or assist in filing a Suspicious Activities Report (“SAR”); and/or
• Determine that no response is warranted under the particular circumstances.

In order to further prevent the likelihood of Identity Theft occurring with respect to Covered Accounts, the University will take the following steps with respect to its internal operating procedures to protect customer and student identifying information:

• Ensure that its information systems and website are secure or provide clear notice that the website or systems are not secure;
• Ensure complete and secure destruction of paper documents and computer files containing an individual’s account information when a decision has been made to no longer maintain such information in compliance with appropriate controlling law, rules, regulations and policy;
• Ensure that office computers with access to Covered Account information are password protected;
• Avoid use of social security numbers (See University Collection, Use, and Protection of Social Security Numbers Policy);
• Ensure computer virus protection is up-to-date; and
• Require and keep only the kinds of customer and student information that are necessary for University purposes.

Hornet Card Changes of Address 

University personnel who receive notification of a change of address for a cardholder, and, within a short period of time afterwards, receive a request for additional or replacement cards on the same account will not issue a new card until the University:

• Notifies the cardholder of the request; or
• Otherwise assesses the validity of the address change.

The Hornet Card Office is responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining additional procedures in conformity with these policies and submitting said policies to the Identity Theft Committee and Program Administrator for review and inclusion in the approval process.

Program Administration 

Oversight

Responsibility for developing, implementing and updating this Program lies with an Identity Theft Committee (“Committee”) for the University. The Committee is chaired by a Program Administrator. Two or more other individuals appointed by the President of the University or the Program Administrator comprise the remainder of the committee membership. The Program Administrator will be responsible for ensuring appropriate training of University staff on the Program, for reviewing any staff reports regarding the detection of Red Flags and the steps for preventing and mitigating Identity Theft, determining which steps of prevention and mitigation should be taken in particular circumstances and considering periodic changes to the Program.

Staff Training and Reports

University staff responsible for implementing the Program shall be trained either by or under the direction of the Program Administrator in the detection of Red Flags and the responsive steps to be taken when a Red Flag is detected. University staff shall be trained, as necessary, to effectively implement the Program. University employees are expected to notify the Program Administrator once they become aware of an incident of Identity Theft or of the University’s failure to comply with this Program. At least annually or as otherwise requested by the Program Administrator, University staff responsible for development, implementation, and administration of the Program shall report in writing to the Program Administrator on compliance with this Program. The report should address such issues as effectiveness of the policies and procedures in addressing the risk of identity theft in connection with the opening and maintenance of Covered Accounts, service provider arrangements, significant incidents involving identity theft and the University staff’s response, and recommendations for changes to the Program.

Service Provider Arrangements

In the event the University engages a service provider to perform an activity in connection with one or more Covered Accounts, the University will take the following steps to ensure the service provider performs its activity in accordance with reasonable policies and procedures designed to detect, prevent and mitigate the risk of Identity Theft.

• Require, by contract, that service providers have such policies and procedures in place; and
• Require, by contract, that service providers review the University’s Program and report any Red Flags to the Program Administrator or the University employee with primary oversight of the service provider relationship.
• Must have a Red Flag Program in place as required by law.

Non-Disclosure of Specific Practices

For the effectiveness of this Identity Theft Prevention Program, knowledge about specific Red Flag identification, detection, mitigation and prevention practices may need to be limited to the Identity Theft Committee and to those employees with a need to know them. Any documents that may have been produced or are produced in order to develop or implement this program that list or describe such specific practices and the information those documents contain are considered “confidential” and should not be shared with other University employees or the public. The Program Administrator shall inform the Committee and those employees with a need to know the information of those documents or specific practices which should be maintained in a confidential manner.

Program Updates

The Committee will periodically review and update this Program to reflect changes in risks to customers or students and the soundness of the University from Identity Theft. In doing so, the Committee will consider the University's experiences with Identity Theft situations, changes in Identity Theft methods, changes in Identity Theft detection and prevention methods, changes in technology, changes in legal requirements, and changes in the University's business arrangements with other entities. After considering these factors, the Committee and Program Administrator will determine whether changes to the Program, including the listing of Red Flags, are warranted.

The Program Administrator and Committee will confer with all appropriate University staff as necessary to ensure compliance with the Program. The Program Administrator shall annually report to the President on the effectiveness of the Program. The Program Administrator shall present any recommended changes to the Program to the President for approval. The President’s approval shall be sufficient to make changes to the University Identity Theft Program.

Definitions: All words and phrases shall be interpreted utilizing their plain meanings unless otherwise defined in another University or Board of Regents policy or by statute or regulation.

Pursuant to the Red Flag regulations at 16 C.F.R. §681.2, the following definitions apply to this Program:

Alerts from Others - Notice to the University from a student, Identity Theft victim, law enforcement or other person that the University has opened or is maintaining a fraudulent account for a person engaged in Identity Theft.

Covered Account - includes all customer or student accounts or loans that are administered by the University.

Identify Theft - is a fraud committed or attempted using the identifying information of another person without authority.

Identifying information - is “any name or number that may be used, alone or in conjunction with any other information, to identify a specific person,” including: name, address, telephone number, social security number, date of birth, government issued driver’s license or identification number, alien registration number, government passport number, employer or taxpayer identification number, student identification number or computer’s Internet Protocol address.

Program Administrator - is the individual designated with primary responsibility for oversight of the program.

Red Flag - is a pattern, practice, or specific activity that indicates the possible existence of Identity Theft.

Procedures: All procedures linked and related to the policies above shall have the full force and effect of policy if said procedures have first been properly approved by the University’s administrator in charge of Business and Finance.

[Business and Finance procedures - coming soon]

Related Policy Information: [coming soon]