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Coco Warner reportingA Lehi man says a hacker stole his social security number from a University of Utah network server, and now he has some advice for other victims of identity theft.
Just last week, University of Utah officials issued a warning about one of their servers, saying it was compromised and a hacker may have gained access to the names and social security numbers of people employed by the University from 1970 to 2003.
And that seems to be the case for Lehi resident David Buchanan.
David worked in the University's computer center from 1995 to 1999.
After hearing about the potential breach on August 10th, he placed a fraud alert on his credit report on Thursday, August 11th.
And on Saturday, the 13th, he found a charge on his credit card to OfficeNation.com-- a charge he didn't make.
David found out, whoever had stolen his social security number also found out his mother's maiden name and was able to use that information to gain access to his credit card account, and have a $408 purchase shipped to an address in California.
David has since reported the I.D. theft to his bank, credit card company, local police and the University of Utah.
But he now has to be even more protective of his personal information, now that someone else knows his social security number.
David Buchanan/I.D. theft victim: "It is real. Check your credit report. Go and change your security questions on your bank accounts to something other than your mother's maiden name. It's easy for them to find after they have your social security number."
You can read more about David's story Tuesday morning in the Deseret Morning News.
