WOW! News today that 3.6 millions South Carolina taxpayers have had their info stolen due to a breach. I do wonder if this was yet another SQL issue.

From CNET:

If you live in South Carolina, there’s a very good chance that slipshod state government security has allowed an overseas computer criminal to acquire your Social Security number.

The South Carolina Department of Revenue acknowledged the massive electronic security breach today, saying an electronic intrusion led to 3.6 million Social Security numbers being stolen. The state’s population is approximately 4.7 million.

Unreal. So basically anyone that filed a tax return in the state of South Carolina since 1998 is affected.

Awesome…in the way that is just horrible for the citizens of South Carolina. Not cool. Oh right, I used to live in South Carolina. Wonderful realization. I will give them credit for a relatively quick response turnaround. Not like TD Bank who took 6 months to come clean.

I did find this last particular passage from the article interesting,

Approximately 387,000 credit card numbers were in the files taken, the state said. But officials claim that only 16,000 were unencrypted.

Data was only partially encrypted? Strikes me as odd.

Source: Article Link

(Image used under CC from Rob Boudon)

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