Is this a joke (email PPS to registrations?)

projectmayhem

I received this email today:

Dear Student
In line with the HEA (Higher Education Authority) End of Year
Statistical Analysis Reports, we are required to input the PPS number
for each student.

Please forward your PPS number and student number to the Registrations
Office in DIT Kevin St.

email: kevin.registrations@dit.ie
or
Phone: 4024663 (Opening Hours 9am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 5pm)

Kind Regards

This was sent to all student lists in Kevin St.

Now, I'm all for transparency online but asking every student to email their PPS number (to DIT's shoddy servers of all places) sounds a little out of place to me. I'd imagine even the HSE have guidelines like credit card companies not to share your PPS number with third-parties... particularly on unsecured online systems.

Am I alone in thinking this is highly irregular and that, perhaps, DIT has even less cop on then first thought?

Sheeps

projectmayhem wrote: »

I received this email today:



This was sent to all student lists in Kevin St.

Now, I'm all for transparency online but asking every student to email their PPS number (to DIT's shoddy servers of all places) sounds a little out of place to me. I'd imagine even the HSE have guidelines like credit card companies not to share your PPS number with third-parties... particularly on unsecured online systems.

Am I alone in thinking this is highly irregular and that, perhaps, DIT has even less cop on then first thought?

I haven't got this yet. I hope it's true, just so I can laugh at DIT. Seriously, the DIT administration is quite literally the biggest piece of shit in any educational institution in Ireland.

Naikon

Yep, I got the that email too. Looks like "important" DIT admin people don't grok the implications of sending personal data over a plaintext medium such as email.

Kenno90

You only got it today??

I got that email early last week and i just took one look at it and said 'not a hope'.

If they really need it they can hand out forms to be returned to the head office(even then i mightn't hand it over)

Also i got slightly different email

Dear Student,

Please foward your PPS number to this office in order for us to update
our records in line with the HEA. Please forward your student number
and PPS number to the emial address below

kevin.registrations@dit.ie

Regards,

Registrations Office

Makes ya think they'd send a mass email rather then slightly different emails to selected classes

wolfric

lol i thought it was a scam and just ignored it.

campuslife

Hi All,

We've queried the PPS request with the relevant people and it's not a spam e-mail. The information we've received is as follows:

"The request from DIT for PPS numbers is based upon our obligations to return statistical information to the Higher Education Authority which is our funding body.

Their requirements in terms of PPSN numbers state that PPSN is "Mandatory where applicable - The PPSN must be supplied for all enrolled students and graduates, with the sole exception of 'Occasional' students."

The complete HEA requirement is available on their website (http://www.hea.ie/en/node/1095) and the information specific to PPSN numbers for students would be found under Survey File.

A little bit more information on DIT and PPSN usage is available from the Department of Social and Family Affairs here...

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PPSN/Pages/rou.aspx#dubit

And lastly, see Question 12 here...

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PPSN/Pages/faq.aspx"

Hope that clarifies the matter slightly. Strange request I know, but I hope the clarification helps in some way.

Regards,
Brian Gormley
Campus Life

ranelaghguy

This is very poor. Great advertisement for the incompetance of the DIT staff. I still won't send my PPS number. Im going to have to go in and do it in person in the office, well ill be in person anyways. The staff in their are certainly not human and I have a feeling they despise students.

With all the technological talent and expertise going through the college, it still has useless staff in the administration. Some of them in there make it look like a chore to come to the desk and help you. Completely useless public servants that know any mess up they are responsible for will result in them getting a bonus and keeping their jobs.

What happens if they don't get my PPS number? Because I might refuse to give it to them until I know its going to be secure in their hands or their ancient IT network facilities.

And another thing, at the beginning of the year I wrote down my PPS number on a form and handed it into them. Where has that information gone? Is it lost? Are they just too lazy to look for it?


On that link you provided: http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PPSN...rou.aspx#dubit it says:

(iv) What future plans has your Institute for the use of the PPS Number?

With respect of the management of PPS Numbers for students;

* CAO collects the PPS No. on DIT's behalf and incorporates it in the data transferred to DIT

That means the CAO collects it, then DIT gives it out to the relevant bodies.

BC

ranelaghguy wrote: »

I might refuse to give it to them until I know its going to be secure in their hands or their ancient IT network facilities.

I'd say its as secure as the bank details that you have to give in order to get the grant paid.

at the beginning of the year I wrote down my PPS number on a form and handed it into them. Where has that information gone? Is it lost? Are they just too lazy to look for it?

This is the bit I don't understand, surely most people gave it already.

That means the CAO collects it, then DIT gives it out to the relevant bodies.

As far as I remember from my CAO entry - it was optional, didn't have to give it to CAO.

Sheeps

campuslife wrote: »

Hi All,

We've queried the PPS request with the relevant people and it's not a spam e-mail. The information we've received is as follows:

"The request from DIT for PPS numbers is based upon our obligations to return statistical information to the Higher Education Authority which is our funding body.

Their requirements in terms of PPSN numbers state that PPSN is "Mandatory where applicable - The PPSN must be supplied for all enrolled students and graduates, with the sole exception of 'Occasional' students."

The complete HEA requirement is available on their website (http://www.hea.ie/en/node/1095) and the information specific to PPSN numbers for students would be found under Survey File.

A little bit more information on DIT and PPSN usage is available from the Department of Social and Family Affairs here...

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PPSN/Pages/rou.aspx#dubit

And lastly, see Question 12 here...

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PPSN/Pages/faq.aspx"

Hope that clarifies the matter slightly. Strange request I know, but I hope the clarification helps in some way.

Regards,
Brian Gormley
Campus Life

The issue is not with the fact that they need the PPS number, it's with their unsecured method of collecting students PPS numbers. Considering that DIT's payroll database was completely open for a couple of years, then when some of the school of computing staff went to the President of DIT to make him aware of how vulnerable it was to attack by reducing his salary by £1, the system admins suggested that those who presented the problem be fired for pointing out their incompetence, and the critical vulnerability wasn't even fixed for a year or two after that. It's very hard to trust DIT with sensitive information like this, specially when they ask us to email it to them.

Kenno90

Sheeps wrote: »

The issue is not with the fact that they need the PPS number, it's with their unsecured method of collecting students PPS numbers. Considering that DIT's payroll database was completely open for a couple of years, then when some of the school of computing staff went to the President of DIT to make him aware of how vulnerable it was to attack by reducing his salary by £1, the system admins suggested that those who presented the problem be fired for pointing out their incompetence, and the critical vulnerability wasn't even fixed for a year or two after that. It's very hard to trust DIT with sensitive information like this, specially when they ask us to email it to them.

Interesting:rolleyes: i never knew that.

Sheeps

Quite a lot of the administration staff in DIT are not qualified to be employed in their roles.

ranelaghguy

Thats very interesting Sheeps, did'nt know about the payroll incident. Yeah, thats the only problem I have, it is trusting them with the information.

discus

Here her lads. In this day and age, who would dare have us send in out PPS number to be manually input from there. Insane.

That's a great story Sheeps, and I'd love to hear an extended version at some stage!

joeybloggs

I'll give them my PPSn through the DIT email.

As soon as the Vice President of Nigerias First Bank completes the transfer of funds to my account from my long lost uncle's Will.

big dan

Saw this email last thurs. Asked one of the lecturers what she reckoned, she thought it was strange and asked me top go up to warn the people in registrations as we thought it might be a scam.

So I went up and told them and they thought it was weird that I thought it was bogey to ask us to email our ppsn to them. Gave it to them while I was up there instead of emailing.

Stench Blossoms

What's the big deal about this?

What exactly can someone do with your PPSN ?

projectmayhem

orla wrote: »

What's the big deal about this?

What exactly can someone do with your PPSN ?

Your PPSN contains essentially all of your details relating to public services (tax, thus wages, any benefits you claim, contact details, etc.). Do you really want to hand that over to someone online over an insecure connection, especially an even more insecure connection because I somehow doubt DIT have any security at all!

Ultimately though, the reason I raised this was because it's a very odd request to make. I'm sure even the dept. of social welfare and whoever else runs the PPS system wouldn't want people emailing their numbers to people. They wouldn't email you for cc details.

Stench Blossoms

projectmayhem wrote: »

Your PPSN contains essentially all of your details relating to public services (tax, thus wages, any benefits you claim, contact details, etc.). Do you really want to hand that over to someone online over an insecure connection, especially an even more insecure connection because I somehow doubt DIT have any security at all!

Ultimately though, the reason I raised this was because it's a very odd request to make. I'm sure even the dept. of social welfare and whoever else runs the PPS system wouldn't want people emailing their numbers to people. They wouldn't email you for cc details.

I know it holds details relating to public services but what damage could they do?

Try claim the dole with it....With a fake id? Use it to get a job...to get taxed?

They can't ring up the tax office and say "Hey this is my PPSN, what's my name and address?" so i really don't see what the big problem is.

I understand your point that the DIT isn't very security conscious but they aren't asking for your credit card details.

wolfric

It's more than that it's VERY bad practice to email people asking them for details like that. Professional companies NEVER do that. In fact if you ever get an email like this asking you for any sort of information i'd delete and report it. Most emails like this are usually phishing scams. This is because you cannot validate easily who the email came from or if it's real. If you're sending an email back with the reply button and don't look at the address properly, you can send it to a 3rd party...

It's just a simple rule... don't send personal information over email.

discus

orla wrote: »

I know it holds details relating to public services but what damage could they do?

Try claim the dole with it....With a fake id? Use it to get a job...to get taxed?

They can't ring up the tax office and say "Hey this is my PPSN, what's my name and address?" so i really don't see what the big problem is.

I understand your point that the DIT isn't very security conscious but they aren't asking for your credit card details.

You can get way more with it, particularly when it comes to state stuff. There's been times when all I've had as proof of who I am is my name, address and PPS number.

Sheeps

It's basically all you need to steal someone's identity.

Stench Blossoms

discus wrote: »

You can get way more with it, particularly when it comes to state stuff. There's been times when all I've had as proof of who I am is my name, address and PPS number.

Can you please elaborate what else you can get with it?

So if someone was to steal your ppsn and was using it to proof who they were they would also need your name and address yes? Which are not on your card no? So without your address and another fake ID it wouldn't be of any use?

Sheeps wrote: »

It's basically all you need to steal someone's identity.

Please explain how?

The reason i'm asking is because I think that yes your PPSN is important but it is worthless on it's own. i.e it is never using alone as a proof of identity.

elementalwater

Isnt it weird that only students in Kevin Street got it?

So much for DIT centralising their administration departments....looks like its still different rules, regulations and weird goings on from site to site



i'm still waiting on my refund from exams for overcharging me on registration for supplemental exams....

Stench Blossoms

Bumping this thread to see if any of my questions will be answered.

yoyo

I never got this email, feel left out lol

Nick

FewFew

orla wrote: »

Bumping this thread to see if any of my questions will be answered.

Well in this situation your name would be on your email with your pps number.

People intent on identity theft will get over certain hurdles once they have the key points of information and it only takes one weak link. For example I recently had dealings with a credit card company and they asked for certain personal details in order to confirm my identity. I wasn't really paying attention and accidentally gave the wrong answer, realising seconds later, but the guy carried on... so I thought it was a scam and was overly cautious. Turns out he was legit, but why did he continue when I supplied incorrect answers? So, really it just takes one person not overly bothered about their jobs or someone who is too nice etc. and you can be in trouble.