UCI Computer Thieves Are at It Again : Crime: In 20 recent break-ins $80,000 worth of equipment was stolen, including research data on software. Inherent security problems are blamed in part.
Computer thieves have struck again--and again and again--at UC Irvine, where $80,000 worth of sophisticated equipment has been stolen in 20 recent break-ins that mimic the work of a student burglary ring cracked last spring.
Recent thefts have stung the university telecommunications office, where more than $20,000 in new computers were stolen before they could be unpacked from boxes, and professors, including one mathematician whose office has been robbed of at least $30,000 worth of equipment in four break-ins since he was hired by UCI in August.
University police have no suspects, according to Chief Mike Michel, but do not believe that the burglaries are connected to $120,000 in computer thefts by four UCI students last year. As in the earlier cases, thieves passed over less popular brands in favor of Apple Macintosh computers, laser printers and software in high demand on the illegal street market.
“It could be anybody,” Michel said Wednesday. “In many of the cases, there was no sign of a forced entry, which means somebody had a key, the door was not locked, or the burglar was very skillful with lock picks.”
The student burglars who struck 14 times between February, 1988, and last April used master keys to enter university offices and escaped through a network of underground utility tunnels that link campus buildings, police said. The tunnels have since been secured, and police have “pretty much ruled out” their use in thefts since July, Michel said.
Those students, Paul Wesley Granados, 21, of San Jose; Henry Theodore Yeh, 21, of Ridgecrest; Eric Howard Shay, 20, of La Cresenta, and Robert Fan, 20 of Cerritos, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to felony grand theft charges in Superior Court. They were sentenced by Judge Ragnar Engebretsen to five years’ probation and ordered to make restitution for all unrecovered equipment. They also were ordered to serve 500 hours of community service. All four were expelled from UCI.
Guarding against theft is especially difficult at a university, where many laboratories and offices must be open to students and faculty researchers around the clock. The recent thefts, between July 1 and last weekend, have hit the Administration Hall, the Physical Sciences Building, the Graduate School of Management, the Biology Building, and the Information and Computer Sciences Building.
“It’s impossible to limit access, especially during daytime hours,” said university spokeswoman Linda Granell, whose own office was burglarized last spring. “Some labs have research going on through the night, and we have to guarantee students access so they can do their work.”
University police have replaced locks on many of the offices that were broken into and have urged installation of computer-anchoring devices and engraving of computer and electronic equipment. In addition, a crime-prevention workshop that will focus on anti-theft efforts is planned for all university departments on Nov. 14.
In some cases, there is no money to replace stolen equipment, and monetary value cannot be assigned to research data stored on stolen software.
“We’ll just have to take the loss,” said David Tomchek, director of Network and Telecommunications Services, which was robbed of five computers between 8 p.m. on Saturday, when the last staff member left work, and 8 a.m. the next day, when another worker discovered the computers missing. Two of the computers, new Apple Macintosh SE models, had just arrived on Friday.
“We’re crippled,” said Tomchek, whose office repairs computer equipment and provides loaners when campus machines break down. “It will take us a long time to replace what we lost.”
Mathematician Ronald Stern, who came to UCI from the University of Utah in August, lost $30,000 to $40,000 in computer equipment in four break-ins at his Physical Sciences Building office between Labor Day weekend and Oct. 22.
Stern, who studies time, considers himself lucky. Unlike most, he carries outside insurance which covered the thefts. However, he is still working to duplicate almost two years’ worth of research data and computations stored on software taken in the first burglary. In subsequent thefts, he had “some semblance of a backup.”
“I’m ready to move back to Utah,” Stern said, only partly in jest. “One can’t do the science or the research if one is constantly out buying new computers to replace the ones they steal.”
Another UCI mathematics professor, Rene Carmona, said whoever broke into his office last month took the electronic guts of a Macintosh computer and several operation manuals.
“They opened the machine and took the inside and left the cleaned-out box,” Carmona said. “They were very professional. They absolutely knew what they were doing.”
Carmona, who kept duplicate data on computer discs at his home because of prior thefts at UCI, said he worries constantly about the security of his office computer and a small computer lab that he established last summer.
“You come in on Monday morning and you open your door and wonder, ‘What am I going to find?’ ” he said. “Over the weekends, sometimes I come in just to make sure my computers are still here.”
