In an effort to increase security for sensitive information, the University of Wisconsin is disabling all outdated UW identification cards that are attached to the user?s Social Security number starting April 15.

Brian Rust, communications director for UW?s Department of Information Technology, said the old form of ID had the user?s SSN attached to it and left this information open to exposure to outside parties.

After mid-April, however, any faculty or staff who wish to continue to use any services on campus that require an ID will have to exchange their cards because the old ones will be deactivated.

According to Rust, the university has been sending periodic reminders to faculty members who still have the old IDs for the past couple of years, urging them to switch to the safer IDs. Now there is no longer an option.

?This is it. They?re going to have to switch, or they?re going to be out of luck,? Rust said.

The decision to completely get rid of the old IDs is the university?s response to the data exposure that occurred at the end of last November.

The UW identification information of people who made purchases from the university?s online technology store were posted on a database that was accessible by everyone, and 200 of those IDs were the old ones that had the Social Security numbers attached.

?The problem was not that there was an exposure of IDs, but that some had Social Security numbers attached to them,? Rust said. ?If the number is not Social Security number-based, it?s not that big of a deal. It?s just a random number. A person can?t do anything with it. They can?t make a purchase or get a credit card or anything.?

Rust said there are a total of 8,000 people on the server who still have the old IDs. Of these, UW has contact information for about 5,000; the other 3,000 people, according to Rust, are probably faculty and staff that have not worked for UW for a long time.

He added 3,000 of the names have accounts that are considered active, meaning they have used their account sometime within the past year.

Mike Majerus, UW Human Resources associate, said people who use their identification numbers but do not want or need a new card can call his office at 608-262-3806 to have their numbers switched.

He added anyone who wishes to do this will have to be able to provide his or her Social Security number and date of birth in order to verify his or her identity.

The new numbers they will be given will not be active until April 15, so people will have to rely on their old numbers until then, Majerus said.