One More Excel inquiry: Secure a column of data

[freeradical]

Does anyone else remember the year when the IRS printed social security numbers on the peel off mailing labels of the tax booklets they mailed out?

Whoops...

[N-OS X-tasy!]

[quote kap]JJ,
To answer your question, "Yes."

GGD,
Yes, I have developed a dummy sample of the file which contains fake SSN, Name, Address, etc. The the most important elements of the file are the Loan Amount, Paid Amount and the Balance. That is what I have been working on: recover the money from the students who are defaulting on their loans.
Holy crap! SSNs and financial data?

[kap]

[quote N-OS X-tasy!][quote kap]JJ,
To answer your question, "Yes."

GGD,
Yes, I have developed a dummy sample of the file which contains fake SSN, Name, Address, etc. The the most important elements of the file are the Loan Amount, Paid Amount and the Balance. That is what I have been working on: recover the money from the students who are defaulting on their loans.
Holy crap! SSNs and financial data?
It is NOT a Fed Student Loan nor a Perkins Loan nor PLUS loan which involves even more personal information. This is a small private loan/scholarship fund with the maximum of $300. It's mainly to assist with a few purchases of school supplies. Heck, one of my Art History text and a workbook alone cost 1/2 of that amount 12 years ago!

[cbelt3]

Oofah-
Please, for your peace of mind and ours, convince your school NOW to stop using the SSN as a key index field. In this day and age, it's the height of insanity. I realize that most schools used to use the SSN as a student ID, but really they should have switched. Each student most certainly has a unique student ID. Use that. Please.

We don't want to read about your school on slashdot

[Don C]

Create a separate file that we'll call a conversion file. Put all identification information (e.g. SSN, Name, Address) into this file. Now add a new column with a newly generated ID number. I can be as simple as a one up counter or a randomly generated number.

In the file to go home, remove all identification fields (the ones you stored on the conversion file), but add the new ID number.

Store the conversion file in a safe place at work; the loan data, with no identification information on it except the new ID number, should be able to go home safely. It should just be a collection of financial data.

When you take the financial file back to work, you can return the personal information from the conversion file.

[kap]

cbelt3,
Some students do use a random generated registration number as their ID. And I certainly would suggest to our dept to forgo the usage of SSN as student IDs. However, the process must be started and approved from the top, i.e. Fed, down to us. WEll, you know how that goes.

Don C,
Your suggestion matches what my programmer friend had in mind so we will begin working on that soon. Thanks!

[cbelt3]

DonC is absolutely right. But take it a step further and make sure the conversion file is HIGHLY secured.

And I understand- my co has every employee's bank account data stored in an area that about 1/4 of the people with system access can find (if they know where to look). We've complained, but gotten a big 'so what, the system is secured' response. Sometimes people just don't get it. If the data is accessible to more than ONE person, it's compromised.