The University of Oklahoma has revealed that a laptop compromised by a variant of the Zeus botnet may have exposed or compromised sensitive information on OU students–including Social Security numbers. There are no further details yet available regarding the scope of the potential compromise. According to this blurb from KOCO.com, though, “OU officials said they are not aware of any instances of identity theft or similar problems as a result of the breach, but they said they can’t be certain that student information was not compromised.

One way that OU would be able to be certain that student information was not compromised is if the data stored on the laptop, or on servers the laptop has access to was encrypted. I am not sure why these incidents seem to occur almost exclusively at medical establishments and educational institutions, but simply investing in the proper security controls up front can save time, money, and embarrassment for the organization, as well as protecting the personal and sensitive information the organization has been entrusted with.