All LSU -Baton Rouge Students and Parents Of Student Please Read THIS-IMPORTANT

Names, SSNs, and possibly bank accounts LOST -

College account data lost(Advocate Article)
Hundreds of thousands of student and parent Social Security numbers and financial records could be exposed after statewide records were lost in September.
Most backup records from the TOPS scholarship program and from Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms, dating back to 1998 were lost, said Melanie Amrhein, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance.
“We certainly don’t want to create any panic,” Amrhein said Tuesday. “But people should be aware and take the necessary steps.
“This is backup data off of a mainframe that contains sensitive personal information,” she said.
The incident could affect everyone who has applied to college in recent years, because FAFSA forms are standard procedure.
The data loss even affects those who applied to Louisiana schools but ended up going out of state.
Records from the state’s START Saving Program for college savings accounts also were affected, including the bank account information of many parents, according to the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance.
The good news, Amrhein said, is no foul play is suspected and the information is compressed, so special software and equipment is needed to access the records.
The information was lost Sept. 19, she said, but the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance waited until this week to publicize it to allow for time to find the data if it had just been misplaced.
An investigation from the state Attorney General’s Office also was started.
Those affected are asked to get free credit reports from Equifax, Experian and Trans- Union credit-reporting agencies and to place fraud reports with each agency.
If bank account information was lost, the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance is even advising those people to close their bank accounts and open new ones at other banks.
For information visit the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance online at http:// www.osfa.state.la.us/notice.htm or call (800) 645-7990.

To see if you are effected go here