[Dataloss] Think Your Social Security Number Is Secure? ThinkAgain

[David Bloys]

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 at ziffdavis.com] 
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 9:12 PM
To: David Bloys; Richard Forno
Cc: dataloss at 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 


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