During this summer session, some strangers who pretended to be researchers of CBNU came to a few classes during break time. They handed out papers to students to write their name, major, student ID code and phone number. Some students were suspicious of the strangers because their information is already saved in CBNU’s central information system. However, other students wrote their information on the paper without a doubt because the paper’s form was too elaborate to be a deception. After the class, a professor and some students reported the strangers to the Office of Academic Affairs. There were 4 classes that the strangers came to, and it is not known how many students wrote their information down. That was a quite hot potato among the students. This case reminded the students to be careful about their information. The Office of Academic Affairs immediately sent a message, “Never reply to the requirement of strangers”, to students who took the summer session class. After that, there were no more problems in summer session.
  In the past, similar cases frequently happened in previous semesters. During the first semester in 2013, in the College of Commerce and Business Administration, a stranger came to a class without any permission to sell a book and he took the students phone numbers who wanted to buy it. In the same period, in the College of Humanities, some strangers came to a class of the Dept. of Chinese Language and Literature in break time and asked for students’ phone numbers. At that time, the Office of Chinese Language and Literature notified the students in the class that they shouldn’t give them personal information.
  A professor who taught the students in this summer session said, “Even though there were lots of big other personal information spills, I can’t ignore this situation because it’s related to my students. In addition, the paper was in the other class too and not only in my class. It was very hard for me to keep calm about this situation. How can they do this to my students! I hope that the university will take action. For example, organizing a reporting system for students to prevent this situation is necessary.”
  Kyung Ye-jin(’12, Dept. of Safety Engineering), who took the class of summer session and the victim of this situation, said, “They came into the class. Then, they announced themselves as members of a school club. However, there was no such club in CBNU. They required all of the students’ information. After that, they often called and pushed me to register for their club. I was so embarrassed because my personal information was so easily spilled, and I felt like a victim of smishing. I want CBNU to notify about this situation so that it will not happen again.”
The Office of Academic Affairs said, “We were notified about this situation by the professor and some students. Unfortunately, we don’t know who the strangers were and what they wanted. After the second semester begins, we are planning to notify CBNU students on the official homepage and other places that the school doesn’t require personal information because we already have it. Therefore, don’t be deceived by strangers.”

By Park Ji-su

js34@cbnu.ac.kr