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Who Wants To Be An Oregonian?
Anonymous Coward writes "TheOregonian.com is reporting that an identity theft ring was caught with ownership of a set of CD's which contained records on every registered driver (~2.5 million people) in the State of Oregon. With all the calls for identity smart cards, federal databases, and better connections among existing state databases, this story should provide a real warning for the abuse such systems invite...by both criminals and the government itself...the records are actually for sale to 'approved' companies like news organizations and banks. The full story can be read here on yahoo as well."
According to the original Oregonian article:
In addition to the discs from Oates' apartment, investigators recovered drivers' licenses, credit cards, identification photos, death certificates, Social Security cards and applications for medical residency at OHSU Hospital.
It sounds like there was a lot more to this than just license data. My guess is that it's not the Oregon public that's at risk - it's some OHSU facility this guy was trying to get into.
A Roger Zelazny story (One of his more esoteric titles) about a guy who was one of the development team for the national identity database. He left a hole in the system so that he could assume any identity at will and made his living as a sort of glorified private eye.
Well that the story I think of, anyway.
This story is actually a few days old. here in Portland it has been on the news for at least three days.
One of the bits i saw showed Oates telling the channel 6 news crew that all the CD's were either blanks or just music. They then showed a Hillsboro police rep stating that the beginning and end blocks on a lot of the CD's were indeed music, but that all of the middle blocks contained identity related data.
Just and FYI.
You are right that "the implicit assumption that the computer is always right" can be a problem. However, it is precisely that assumption (or at least the assumption that the computer is almost always right that makes things so much easier for most people. I can enter a town I've never been in, present a little piece of plastic, sign my name, and receive goods and services. That's really useful. I'm willing to take the attendant risk that some can pretend to be me and do the same thing.
What they are not telling you is that as of a few years ago ANYONE could order a copy of the entire list of licensed drivers in the state of Oregon. All it cost was sending them a 9-track tape and a small fee. ($75, if I remember correctly.)
It is not until copies of the records started to show up on CDs and on the net that things got changed. (Having someone stalked and killed did not stop them from banning the sale of the lists. Having people be able to look up politician's home addresses did. Kinda sorta.)
Now only people who have a "valid need" for the data can buy it.
The reason they did not ban the outright selling of the license lists was that the direct mail people "heavlly objected".
It became very obvious to those people in Oregon that actually paid attention that the state government cared more about financial concerns than they did about actually protecting public safety and/or privacy.
As for the oregonian... They are known to have a very skewed sense of reporting ethics. I would first determine exactly which axe they have to grind before coming to any conclusions about the "facts" of the matter.
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
At defcon you can always buy the Nevada state dmv records for $3 a peice. This is legit, the state sold them to those people.
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
Nevada has been doing it for years. I know other states do, California doesnt but I believe some of the eastern seaboard sells the same information.
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
I've lived in Oregon for 4 1/2 years now, and I can tell you this is a very weird place to live.
1. The fact that I can't pump my own gas still amazes me. There's nothing like waiting 10 minutes to do something that should only take 5.
2. Oregon has something called a "kicker check" which means that if the government doesn't spend all of the money it collected in taxes, it refunds the difference to the taxpayers. Great concept, but it's actually a farce because the money is such a political hot potato that you don't dare spend that money or the people complain. So the government deliberately underspends so they can send out a kicker. This year the state is hundreds of millions short of what it needs, but guess what? The kicker still went out.
3. Oregon has a referendum system that has run amok, mostly because of one person named Bill Sizemore. He's always complaining about Oregon having high taxes (which is untrue, Oregon's total tax burden is about 38th highest, mostly because there is NO sales tax). But he's managed to get some taxes cut, further hurting the state. I'm sure he has plans to put a referendum out there to eliminate taxes completely.
4. Oregon's roads are torn to shreds every year because they allow studded tires starting October 1. A section of interstate between my home and work was paved only a few years ago, and already the studs have cut deep ruts into the road.
5. Portland has an "urban growth boundary" that is roughly a circle 20 miles in radius around Portland that sets a limit as to how far you can "sprawl" the city. Since the boundary is mostly full already, the local governments want to increase the population density (with all of the wonderful side-effects), but won't authorize any new freeways to alleviate what is already the 6th worst traffic in the country. There is some light rail (which is a great idea), but it still isn't nearly as extensive as it needs to be to make any difference. So Portlanders are packed in even tighter, and traffic gets worse every year.
Add to that the fact that the state only has one major newspaper (which is lousy), terrible local TV news (a recent study confirmed this), and housing costs that are way too high (partly because of the already mentioned urban growth boundary), and it makes me wonder why I stay here. For now, I'm happy to stay put, but it seems like Oregon is always doing something to urge people to leave. Of course, since I moved here from out of state, I've always known that I wasn't welcome here anyway. That's just the way Oregon is.