[LenS]

Carl Malamud Finds 500,000 Veteran's Social Security Numbers Published in the Congressional Record | UsefulArts.us

PII Compliant? 500,000 Veterans’ Social Security Numbers Published in the Congressional Record
By Dave Wieneke on Nov 11, 2009 in Featured, Privacy/security

Just over a year ago, Carl Malamud, the founder of Public.Resource.org, a non-profit dedicated to making public records available online, did the Department of Defense a big proper.


He noticed that the social security numbers of officers were being printed in the Congressional Record. Hundreds of thousands of them. Since copies of the Congressional Record are available online and in print at libraries throughout the United States, this is a big privacy breach.

As a good citizen, Malamud immediately informed the Defense Department’s Inspector General Gordon Heddell; the Government Printing Office, which prints the Congressional Record and publishes it online; and the three major commercial databases that publish online versions of the federal publication: W.S. Hein, LexisNexis and Westlaw.

Remarkably, it took ten months for the complaint to make its way to Defense Department’s Privacy Office.

“We’re at the beginning stages of this,” Jenkins said. “We’re taking this very seriously and aggressively pursuing action.” (As if…) When contacted by Stars and Stripes, military officials could not explain why it took nearly a year to address the complaint.

In contrast, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw both removed the data from their services back in 2008. Stars and Stripes found that W.S. Hein, like our federal government, had still not acted.

As today is Veterans Day, here’s a tip of the hat to Malamud, who switched gears from making public records publicly available, to helping keep the personal data of those servicing the public, private.

And thanks to Stars and Stripes for holding the feet of non-responsive agencies and licensees to the fire.

 

[P7fanatic]

Why am I not surprised.
Congress doesn't have a clue and neither does the brass who are now occupying the offices in the Pentagon.


:wave:

 

[DaveH]

:rant:********:rant:********:aargh4:********:rant:********:rant:********:aargh4:*********:rant:*********:rant:

Some staffers need to be fired!

Some elected officials need to be held accountable.

FWIIW -- I wrote mine.

 

[Patti]

Get LifeLock.

They give a discount to veterans.

 

[RETSUPT99]

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute...is the same outfit that wants to take care of my health care and my health records?:aargh4::aargh4::aargh4::aargh4::aargh4:

 

[cuban11182]

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute...is the same outfit that wants to take care of my health care and my health records?:aargh4::aargh4::aargh4::aargh4::aargh4:

Of course....why? Don't you trust them? :rofl:

 

[Hopyard]

Shouldn't have happened but being realistic about things, soc. security numbers, DLs, names, addresses and phone numbers are all UNFORTUNATELY readily found. The cat has been out of the bag since the dawn of the internet and the invention of Google and search engines.

What difference does it make really, in terms of id theft, if someone gets a soc. security number or a DL number? Presently, FTC Red Lock Rules have all manner of small businesses and professionals collecting DLs on all their customers--- anyone think small business can keep those things securely? I don't.

 

[futuretech]

Smart identity thieves will know how to go about getting SS #'s but why hand out 500,000 #'s to the not so smart ones? I wonder how many people Okay'd this breach before it actually got on the Internet - there were probably many who could have spoken up and said this was a bad idea.