Computer intrusion being investigated
UGA officials are investigating unlawful access to a campus server, which may have exposed 2,429 Social Security numbers belonging to current and former employees. Officials believe most of the employees are in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences or are paid from CAES accounts. Due to duplicate entries, the number of individuals affected may be smaller. Steps are under way to notify all involved.

The illegal queries, apparently from an automated source outside the country, were discovered on Sept. 19, and steps immediately were taken to block this sort of exploitation. An investigation is under way to determine precisely which information may have been exposed. No credit card information was contained in the database.

“While there is no evidence that information was actually accessed, the potential exists for the intruder to match names and Social Security numbers, so it is imperative that we notify the individuals involved so that they may take appropriate steps to protect against identity theft,” says Stan Gatewood, UGA’s chief information security officer.

Each individual whose Social Security number may have been accessed will be notified by e-mail. For those without a valid e-mail address, an attempt will be made to notify them by U.S. mail. Gatewood encourages those affected to review the Federal Trade Commission Web site (www.consumer.gov/idtheft) or the Georgia attorney general’s Web site (www.stopidentitytheft.org).

“To this point there has been no evidence, direct or indirect, that any of this information has actually been misused,” says Provost Arnett C. Mace Jr. “But we want to be proactive in informing those whose information may have been compromised by this illegal activity.”

Additional information on this issue is available at the UGA fraud concerns Web site (www.uga.edu/fraudconcerns.html) or by calling UGA’s information security office (542-6820).

Terry college jumps in WSJ ranking
UGA’s Terry College of Business moved up in a new ranking of the top business schools by the Wall Street Journal. The Terry College’s full-time M.B.A. program was ranked 30th this year, up from 38th in 2004, in the regional schools category. Among all U.S. public business schools, the Terry College was ranked 18th.

The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive report is the only business school ranking that is based solely on the opinions and survey responses of corporate recruiters. This is the fifth year of the Journal’s rankings, which produces three different lists of top business schools: national, regional and international.

The Journal survey identified and ranked 19 national programs at schools that tend to have large M.B.A. enrollments and consistently attract recruiters from big multinational companies. The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College topped the national ranking.

EPA funds turfgrass projects
UGA and North Carolina State University researchers have received more than $650,000 in grant funds from the Environmental Protection Agency for turfgrass research in their home states. In Georgia, the grant will be used over the next two years to fund eight turfgrass research projects in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

The grant will fund UGA Seashore Paspalum turfgrass breeding efforts. Seashore paspalum can be irrigated using a wide quality range of water, including seawater, brackish water and recycled water. The grass needs only minimal pesticides and judicious applications of fertilizers.