Live in Phoenix? You may be pwn3d

[thehorse13]

This is utterly disturbing...

"As CNN found in Maricopa County, Arizona -- the county with the highest
rate of identity theft fraud per capita, with one in six people
victimized -- old mortgages, copies of which are available on line, still
contain Social Security numbers."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/interne...net/index.html


--Th13

[dalek]

That is scary...what is even more scarier is now the local governments will have a reason to add a fee to subsquent inquiries to confidential inormation, by the person's themselves, not that, that shouldn't have been in place to begin with, but you can see where in their desire to make information available, they forgot that everyone can see this info.

I would bet this is just the "tip" of the iceberg, and that a lot of municipalities have no control of their confidential information, like property taxes or deeds, even blueprints are probably easily accessed (public buildings could be at risk).Makes one wonder how widespread this stuff is.

[morganlefay]

It is truly disturbing...

I was just talking to someone about hot spots in our town here...

These are wirelwess networks setup downtown ...by someone that knows a little about computers...and networking.

There was a real estate office...wide open...with all the c drives shared ...

Its just sad that government is so lax on this....they really should know better.

Here in Canada we have the Privacy act.........I think it is slowing starting to work for us ...but we are alot smaller then the US....making a standard easier to implement and govern....our government all have a privacy policy and have to inform us how the information we provide will be used...and ensure us that it will remain secure......

I know the US has a standard for business...but does that apply to your governments...both local and federal???


MLF

[brokencrow]

Originally posted here by morganlefay
These are wirelwess networks setup downtown ...by someone that knows a little about computers...and networking.

There was a real estate office...wide open...with all the c drives shared ...

Yeah, sounds like what happened in the courthouse in downtown Lexington about four years back. Totally unsecured wireless network anybody could wander on to. Was a bit of a scandal at the time.

Small businesses are VERY lax from what I've seen (I got stories!). In fact, sadly enough I will no longer deal with mom-and-pop insurance agencies and other financial institutions as a result of what I've seen. Small businesses are totally untrustworthy with my data in my experience.

[genXer]

This is frightening. Pardon my mood, but I feel like applying the "hammer-to-the-screw" fix on this. But is it ill-logical to create a class-action lawsuit against the government for negligent practices akin to those in the aforementioned article? What can the average citizens do?

My own parents think they are safe, because they carry no credit cards and only use a savings account to pay bills. I am trying to convince them otherwise, but in a household, where my Mother, not me, my Mother refers to my Father as "Daddy", I make little head-way.

TH13 and others - thoughts on this? Is there anything we can do to clamp down these practices?

I am also asking as I am getting more involved with our local politics and am going to start putting a buzz in the ear of a candidate I may be supporting. So those with government and/or political know-how, please advise.

[brokencrow]

My own parents think they are safe, because they carry no credit cards and only use a savings account to pay bills.

Actually, they are somewhat safer. A couple of years back I read most ID theft (something like 70%) is still done the old-fashioned way (manually): lifted creditcard numbers from signed receipts and stolen mail being two of the favs. I wouldn't be surprised by some shift in those stats though.

I keep thinking about a retired CIA-man I met at a reception back in '01. Said he wouldn't touch a computer with a ten-foot pole. If he stays awake at night, at least it's not from something he did on a PC.

I still much prefer paying cashola whenever possible. I find it fascinating that consumers feel safer in a cashless society in which fraud and robbery (albeit in a different form) have become a surer prospect.