October 22, 2008
Enforcement Delayed on Identity-Theft Regulations
University officials breathed a collective sigh of relief Wednesday as an official from the Federal Trade Commission announced in an Educause Webcast that new federal regulations requiring institutions to deal with the problem of identity theft would be delayed six months. The laws were scheduled to go into effect November 1.
Campus officials now have until May of next year to determine which portions of their universities will be affected by the new regulations — known as the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule and Notice of Address Discrepancy Rule — and to create programs to protect students and employees from identity theft.
During the Webcast, Naomi Lefkovitz, an attorney for the commission’s division of privacy and identity protection, explained that institutions would be required to comply if they were classified either as “financial institutions” or as “creditors.” Few colleges or universities will end up being considered financial institutions, she said, but every institution that “grants the right to defer payment” will be deemed a creditor. Colleges that allow students to use ID cards to pay for books and then bill the students later, for example, will be required to detect information-security red flags and develop procedures to respond to them, Ms. Lefkovitz said.
Slides from Ms. Lefkovitz’s presentation are available on Educause’s Web site.—David DeBolt
Posted on Wednesday October 22, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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The FTC does not have the slightest clue about Higher Ed !!!!!!!!!!
— miked Oct 23, 02:40 PM #
Actually, only the Red Flags part was deferred – two items related to addresses weren’t deferred. Institutions with ID cards that can be used to buy things may fall under the ‘card issuer’ rules. Also ‘health clinic’ or medical service might also be a ‘creditor’ – gets complicated!
— Allison Oct 24, 02:59 PM #