It was reassuring when the University’s top officials made an immediate effort over the summer to sign up students for emergency text messages. A Pipe Dream editorial congratulated the administration last semester for taking such quick action, and ever since then the slightest flood or blackout has been digitally communicated to faculty, staff and students who have signed up for the free service.

At the time it seemed as though the Couper Administration’s ivory tower powers that be had decided that a quick reaction was the best kind, but in recent weeks, reported mistakes and mishaps that have left students exposed to identity theft seem to be treated with lukewarm concern.

When a School of Management adviser e-mailed the Social Security numbers of 338 students to over 200 other students, James Van Voorst, BU’s vice president for administration, sent out an e-mail telling the affected students to use credit agencies to place a fraud alert, and saying, “We deeply apologize for any difficulty or anxiety which you and other students may experience. Steps are being taken to avoid any future occurrences of this type.”

An apology is warranted, but given the frequency that students’ private information has been exposed, a new plan is vital.

In 2005, a file containing the Social Security numbers of 414 students was left insecure on the University’s servers. One of the students Pipe Dream interviewed for an article three weeks ago had his number released in 2005, and then again in the most recent privacy mishap.

Other students have come forward accusing the University of being too lax with security measures, including one instance when an envelope full of identification information was mailed to a student group office instead of the University Registrar.

The University’s concern seems to be tepid at best. Given the incident in 2005, it should be clear that the protocol for the overwhelming use of students’ Social Security numbers ought to be changed.

The issue is not restricted to this campus, and certainly not just to slipups and absentminded mistakes which can be chalked up to human error — like the last two incidents at BU.

In February, a hacker exposed the personal information (and in some cases, Social Security numbers) of up to 10,000 applicants and graduates at Harvard University. At Western Carolina University, 555 graduates who signed up for a newsletter had their Social Security numbers hacked into when a computer was compromised. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is replacing identification cards that have Social Security numbers on them, and the University of California-Irvine is notifying 7,000 current or former graduate students after 93 students had fake tax returns entered under their names.

The national trend — and the 2005 security breach — should be enough to change the University’s over use of Social Security numbers. A random number or e-mail encryption is the perfect solution to a chronic problem the University has regarded with little more than a perfunctory concern.