Comptroller: Personal ID information left vulnerable online for a year

[sonias]

Postcards from the Lege AAS 4/11/11
Comptroller: Personal ID information left vulnerable online

Sensitive personal identity information of 3.5 million Texans, including their names, Social Security numbers and addresses, were exposed online to the public for about a year, Comptroller Susan Combs announced Monday.

The records came from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Employees Retirement System of Texas and the Texas Workforce Commission.

The comptroller’s office said there was no indication the information had been misused but the Texas Attorney General is looking into the case.
Combs Spokesman RJ DeSilva said the issue was a function of human error, not a breach of security.

Oh boy! And these are some of the same state people that keep telling us paperless electronic voting is "safe and secure".

Does it make you feel better/safer to know it was human error and not a breach of security? Hell no!! :mad:

[sonias]

1. Personal Information Of 3.5 Million Texans Exposed By Comptroller's Office

KUT 4/11/11
Personal Information Of 3.5 Million Texans Exposed By Comptroller's Office

(snip)

Social security numbers, names, mailing addresses and other information of 3.5 million Texans were disclosed on a state computer server that was accessible to the public for about a year. Comptroller Susan Combs' office issued this apology and explanation.

“I deeply regret the exposure of the personal information that occurred and am angry that it happened,” Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said. “I want to reassure people that the information was sealed off from any public access immediately after the mistake was discovered and was then moved to a secure location. We take information security very seriously and this type of exposure will not happen again.”

Officials in the comptroller's office suggest the information may not have been easy to exploit, because it was contained in a string of numbers and not entered into separate fields, as it would be in a spreadsheet.

The personal information came from 1.2 million education employees and retirees who were listed in a Teacher Retirement System of Texas database. About 2 million records originated from a Texas Workforce Commission database. The remaining 281,000 records were those of state employees and retirees listed in an Employees Retirement System of Texas database. As of 1 pm, none of those agencies' front page websites contained warnings about the information breach.

:kick:

[sonias]

7. Combs Faces Deposition Over Agency Security Breach

Texas Tribune 6/28/11
Combs Faces Deposition Over Agency Security Breach

Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs must participate in a three-hour deposition in the aftermath of the largest privacy breach by a state agency in Texas history.

In April, Combs acknowledged the personal data for about 3.5 million people, including individuals from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the Texas Workforce Commission and the Employees Retirement System of Texas, were publically accessible in a server at the state comptroller’s office, some for as long as a year.

On Monday, Travis County District Judge Rhonda Hurley ordered Combs to submit to the deposition after the Texas Civil Rights Project brought legal action. The petition for deposition was filed by two attorneys from the Texas Civil Rights Project, Chuck Herring and Jim Harrington. Additionally, a designated representative of Combs has been ordered to a six-hour deposition.

(snip)

The petition requesting a deposition to investigate a potential claim or suit is “often the first step taken by lawyers, leading to formal litigation, and allows attorneys to get enough information to form the basis of a lawsuit,” according to a press release sent by Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

The security breach publicized names, mailing addresses, Social Security numbers, and some other information, including dates of births and drivers license numbers. The exact amount of personal losses for the individuals is currently unknown, but to date, the breach has cost taxpayers $1.8 million.

Way to go TCRP! :toast:

[gilbertb11]

8. Combs Faces Deposition Over Agency Security Breach

What the TCRP should ask for is a log of the over-seas IP addresses logged in and captured from (Russia, Chin, etc). Although she claims that "is it not know whether information was taken", it is know that foreign IP addresses were logged. Furthermore, TCRP should ask for DIR docs that warned of security holes that were immediately recognized during an audit but being as pompous as she is she chose not to appear to need DIR, after all, she her plan was to take them over because of there incompetence -- how could she take their advice. That would mean she's even more incompetent.

This article is great by Paul Burka

Monday, June 27, 2011
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

by paulburka at 1:14 PM

How else to characterize Susan Combs’ statement today detailing senior staff changes in the comptroller’s office? She so doesn’t get it. The problem in the comptroller’s is lack of competence. So what does she do to fix it? She hires a political operative. His name is David White. Here are his credentials for dealing with the fallout from the release of the personal information of 3.5 million Texans and other serious technology issues at the comptrollers’ office.

1. Served as political director for Rick Perry’s reelection.
2. Worked on various local and statewide campaigns and policy issues.
3. Chief of Staff for State Rep. Wayne Christian.
4. Served as Christian’s lead public policy advisor on several key committees (Regulated Industries, State Affairs, Business and Commerce). I’ll say this for Mr. White. If ever the comptroller should need a revenue estimate for the cost of gender studies at state universities, or for the study of developing a curriculum for a course in the contributions of western civilization, she’s got her man.
5. Served three years as State Chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas concurrent with working for the Legislature.
6. Consultant for the Republican party of Texas.

These aren’t qualifications. These are connections. And you can’t fix a real problem with someone whose only qualification is his political connections.

There is a one-word description for Combs, and it is CLUELESS. Here she is, with her agency and her reputation in ruins and facing gazillion-dollar lawsuits, and she hires … a political consultant. And not just any consultant, but Wayne Christian’s chief of staff. This is classic Combs.
She thinks that substantive problems require political solutions. There is no bottom to this pit of incompetence.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the problems at the comptrollers’ office will soon be but a memory. No doubt Mr. White will bring to his job the same analytical powers demonstrated by his previous boss.

Combs doomed herself shortly after taking office, the day that she fired deputy comptroller Billy Hamilton, one of the most competent and respected public servants in the history of the comptrollers’ office. If Combs had a lick of sense, she would have hired Hamilton instead of White and given him total authority to investigate and fix the problems in the office. But she could never do that, because she would have to admit that she should never have fired him. She’d rather be wrong than own up to a mistake. David White couldn’t hold Hamilton’s number two lead pencil.

[sonias]

9. Good catch

Thanks for the link, gilbertb11!

Combs doomed herself shortly after taking office, the day that she fired deputy comptroller Billy Hamilton, one of the most competent and respected public servants in the history of the comptrollers’ office. If Combs had a lick of sense, she would have hired Hamilton instead of White and given him total authority to investigate and fix the problems in the office. But she could never do that, because she would have to admit that she should never have fired him. She’d rather be wrong than own up to a mistake. David White couldn’t hold Hamilton’s number two lead pencil.

:thumbsup:

[MagickMuffin]

2. Human error that went undeteched for a whole year

Do they even know who this human is and whether or not they still are on the payroll?!?

Republicons are the most incompetent people that continues to screw up big time, yet keep getting reelected. :puke:

I also don't understand why the TDP didn't have an opponent to run against her.

I give this thread a big :kick: & RRRRRRRR.


You only need two more to make it to the greatest. :hi:

[sonias]

3. If this had been a Dem - they would be asking for her head!

Just like that incompetent Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus in Wisconsin. Notice how the Rs are staying mainly silent with the whole fiasco in Wisconsin. Because she's one of theirs. Same thing here - where are the Rs who should be barking at the top of their lungs the whole day? You can barely hear the crickets chirp. :grr:

Hi MM! :hi:

[TxVietVet]

4. I worked in Waukesha County for many years.

I lived in Milwaukee County. Waukesha, especially Brookfield, is a conservanazi heaven. Waukesha the city, voted in a mayor that was going to get the city water from Lake Michigan. AS usual, a rethug is more hot air than anything else. There are laws and covenants about using water from the Great Lakes. The citizens of Waukesha thought since they elected this inexperienced conservanazi that those rules didn't apply. The clerk handling the votes has already been on the hotseat vote recording in the past.

I'm hoping an investigation will expose all the Walker kochroaches and send them to jail.

The conservanazis want power and control so bad, they will do anything. Anything including violating laws and the Constituions of Wisconsin and the US.

[sonias]

5. Me too - complete investigation is needed

Lets at least catch one big kochroach - Kathy Nickolaus - to begin the process.

There have been several diaries at Daily Kos today on the suspicious activity throughout her term. Not just that she refused to upgrade her equipment either.

Here are a few from just this morning:

Daily Kos 4/12/11
20,000 more votes than ballots (Waukesha county, 2006)
Directly from the WaukeshaCounty.gov election results for 2006

156,804 - Total ballots cast in Waukesha county
176,112 - Total votes for Governor/Lt Governor race
174,244 - Total votes for US Senator
174,047 - Total votes for Attorney General
170,440 - Total votes for Secretary of State
168,861 - Total votes for State Treasurer

Brought to you by Kathy Nickolaus.

Daily Kos 4/12/11
Waukesha voting irregularities go back to 2004...

Waukesha 2004, Bush v. Kerry.

Apparently in 2004 the polls in Waukesha were teeming with voters as the Waukesha County Clerk's office showed a 97.63% turn out. No, that's not a typo. 97.63%

http://www.waukeshacounty.gov/uploadedFiles/Media/List_Documents/County_Clerk/2004_Official_Election_Results/Summary_Report_Nov2_2004.lst

Of the 236,642 registered voters in Waukesha on Nov 2, 2004 apparently 231,031 of them came out in a hint of rain and drizzle and did their civic duty.

Just to put this in perspective, Australia has compulsory (mandatory) voting and their turnout is 95%.

[sonias]

6. 3.5 million Texans' data compromised online

AAS 4/12/11
3.5 million Texans' data compromised online

(snip)
Nevertheless, the Texas attorney general and FBI have opened a criminal investigation, said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for Attorney General Greg Abbott.

(snip)

This was the second high-profile technological failure at the comptroller's office in the past year. Last April, thousands of consumers seeking rebates for energy-efficient appliances could not get access through phone banks or a website. That problem was blamed on the outside vendor.

Identity theft experts say that the number of records left vulnerable is not particularly large compared to some breaches at the federal government and corporate entities.

But Jason Lavender of ID Theft Solutions of America said it is potentially a very big deal for the people who are affected.

"What is your identity worth? How do you put a number on that?" Lavender asked.

:popcorn: