BreachExchange mailing list archives
Re: Think Your Social Security Number Is Secure? ThinkAgain
From: "David Bloys" <dbloys () door net>
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:02:43 -0600
This bothers me as well. I work with courthouse documents every day. However, neither the Sunshine Laws nor FOIA promised remote access via the Internet to records that belong to the citizens. These laws were intended to make the records available to citizens who visited the repositories. They were never intended to be available to an identity thief sitting in an Internet cafe in Nigeria or a terrorist from his home computer in Iran. You have to also consider what information would need to be redacted, SSN's of course but their is much more sensitive information contained in the documents than just the SSN's. When you consider that anything you use to identity yourself can and has been used by identity thieves to identity themselves as their victims then it is clear. In many cases, identity thieves don't need a Social. It is handy but only because it can be used to gather more information on the victim. Criminals can easily use a signature copied from a County Website to steal a home. I know of one victim who had his home stolen twice. The FBI has called deed and mortgage fraud the fastest growing white collar crime in America. Keeping the records within the four walls of the courthouse is a system that has worked for centuries. Of course, this system left little oportunity for identity thieves or data agregators to profit at taxpayer expense. The safest solution has always been the simplest. The images should never be connected to a computer that is in turn connected to any network that reaches outside the jurisdiction of the repository. Most County Clerks in Texas have come to this realization although some needed the added inducement of an AG opinion. The indexes, which truly are government documents, are still available on the county website but the people's papers (deeds, mortgages, leases etc.) are kept at the local repository. David Bloys News For Public Officials HYPERLINK "http://www.newsforpublicofficials.com"www.newsforpublicofficials.com -----Original Message----- From: Nash, Kim [mailto:Kim_Nash () ziffdavis com] Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 9:12 PM To: David Bloys; Richard Forno Cc: dataloss () attrition org Subject: RE: [Dataloss] Think Your Social Security Number Is Secure? ThinkAgain
I can tell you also that most County websites across Texas have blocked access to the document images on their sites.
What bothers me and other Sunshine Law and FOIA advocates (and users) is that these documents are being blocked or removed, instead of simply redacted of personal information. -- Kim -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.18.1/691 - Release Date: 02/17/2007 5:06 PM -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.18.1/691 - Release Date: 02/17/2007 5:06 PM
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Current thread:
- Re: Think Your Social Security Number Is Secure? ThinkAgain Nash, Kim (Feb 24)
- Re: Think Your Social Security Number Is Secure? ThinkAgain David Bloys (Feb 25)