Millions of registered voters in Ohio had their personal information distributed to roughly 20 political campaigns. Ouch. This came to light when one of the campaigns called to say that they had not requested the information that they had received. Noble. Immediately after having been alerted to the collosal screw up the campaigns were all contacted in an effort to round up the CDs. All of the information was set to be returned without incident. One of the biggest security problems that seems to be growing at a silly rate is data mismanagement.
The Social Security numbers were included, Lee said, when the CDs were created. “When we did one of our data merges, some data included some Social Security numbers†accidentally, he said. “It’s just a data issue that can be fixed now by leaving out that column.â€
Once the affected CDs are returned sometime in the next two weeks, updated discs will be issued. Asked if any printouts from the CDs will also be returned or destroyed, Lee said he doesn’t believe any printouts were made. “We consider the issue resolved,†he said.
Oops…c’mon folks. Data security has to be taken more seriously. Especially by those in government. Time to wake up and not smell the coffee…but, bloody well drink it!
[tags]Data Security, ID Theft, Privacy[/tags]