Sandra Steele, Educational Consultant

UTs VP for Information Technology to Leave His Post

Associated Press

AUSTIN - The vice president in charge of information technology at the University of Texas at Austin is stepping down, but officials say the move has nothing to do with a recent security breach that exposed the names and Social Security numbers of 84,000 people.

Daniel A. Updegrove is leaving to focus on advanced network services for research and education, the university said in a Monday statement. He became the university's first chief information officer in 2001 and will stay until UT completes a national search for his successor.

University spokesman Don Hale said Updegrove's departure was in the works even before someone hacked into the UT business school's computer system in April and obtained records on 174,000 faculty and staff members, students and alumni.

Business school spokesman Dave Wenger said only 84,000 of those records included Social Security numbers. The rest of the records included information such as e-mail addresses, home addresses or other "information you could pull off a telephone book," he said.

Hale said Updegrove wouldn't be held responsible for the breach because each school is responsible for its own computer security.

"The reality of a university like this one is everything is done on a local level," Hale said. "You don't have control like you would in a corporate environment."

The April breach was UT's second in three years.

Last year, a former UT student was convicted of hacking into a university database in 2003 and stealing Social Security numbers and other personal information from more than 37,000 students, faculty and staff.