One Card Plus upgrades to more secure system

The One Card Plus, a staple for many UNC students, is getting a face-lift — plus one security feature.

Starting this fall, students who are using the One Card Plus — the campus ID combined with a Wells Fargo debit card — are required to replace their old cards with new and improved ones.

The biggest change featured in the new card is the additional magnetic stripe, which separates the campus account information from the bank account information. The front of the card will also feature a new design.

Brandon Thomas, a spokesman for UNC Auxiliary Services, said more than 5,000 students and 200 faculty members will be affected by this change.

Thomas said the change was made mainly for security reasons.

“We want to protect our students and make sure all their financial transactions are as safe as possible”, he said.

The announcement came after as many as 70 million people with Target credit cards had their information stolen in a major security data breach in December 2013. Since the incident, U.S. companies have taken extra precautions to protect their customers’ information.

Thomas said the University and students will not need to pay for the cost of replacing cards, since Wells Fargo will pay for them, and that this change is not only happening on UNC’s campus, but at other universities around the country as well.

Nathan Shafar, manager of the UNC One Card Office, said he hasn’t been aware of any security issues happening on campus and that this change is meant to prevent any possible problems.

“If the database does get hacked, there is no banking information on it, and all they have is your PID number, and that’s actually public information already,” Shafar said.

Thomas said if students don’t get their One Card Plus replaced by December, the magnetic stripe that connects to all UNC accounts will be deactivated, but the cards’ banking sides will continue to work.

Shafar said since so many students are involved in this change, the office hopes to divide the whole process into several stages, with students coming in alphabetically by last name.

He said the whole process could take up to three months.

Junior Ivana Chan currently uses a One Card Plus. She said she welcomes this change because she recently had card fraud on her joint Wells Fargo banking account and UNC One Card.

Three hundred dollars were withdrawn from the banking account linked to her One Card while she was traveling in Florida with her friends.

Chan said she thinks this change will enhance the card security.

“I think it’s good that they are having this change and making everything a little bit uniform.”

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