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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.
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