Thousands of students’ identity information recorded on a CD-ROM was lost late last week by the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation. Students who received a letter saying their information may have been lost can contact credit agencies and place a credit alert on themselves.

Approximately 165,000 social security numbers, last names and states of residence were lost via an overnight delivery from an external financial services company to Iowa Student Loan, said Steven McCullough, president and CEO of Iowa Student Loan.

“It was incomplete data — there were no first names, addresses, phone numbers or birthdays. The information couldn’t be immediately used because it was incomplete,” he said. “A person with certain expertise could eventually fill in the blanks, so in some cases it could be misused, but not immediately.”

In response to the lost CD-ROM, Iowa Student Loan issued letters to all of the people listed on the CD-ROM informing them of what happened and steps to take to protect themselves from identity theft.

Roberta Johnson, director for the office of student financial aid, said Iowa Student Loan is required to notify people whose information has been lost because of the off-chance it could fall into the wrong hands.

“Other people could open charge cards in their names and ruin their credit,” she said.

Johnson said the No. 1 thing students can do to protect themselves is place a credit alert at all three major credit bureaus — TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. Iowa Student Loan urged students to do just that.

“People should contact the credit bureaus and put an alert on their credit so new lines of credit can’t be opened; it puts a block on any new credit initiative until you have shown proper identification,” Johnson said.

“It prevents a normal person off the street to open an account or credit card in your name.”

Johnson said students should monitor credit reports regularly from all three bureaus.

Students have had mixed reaction to the news of identity information lost by a major supplier of student loans.

Many students thought the loan company was very irresponsible.

“Pertinent information like that should be taken care of. You wouldn’t overnight your kid,” said George Trice, senior in marketing. “In this day and age anyone can do anything with information, especially over the Internet.”

Klaire O’Rourke, sophomore in agriculture business, said she received a letter from Iowa Student Loan informing her and her twin sister their information had been lost.

“I haven’t had a chance to read the letter, but my sister gave it to me and said it was important,” she said. “I need student loans, but now I might look into other lenders and will be particular about what information I will give out.”

McCullough said they sent the envelope, which contained the CD-ROM, to a forensic scientist to test their theory of an accidental opening.