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Who Wants To Be An Oregonian?

Posted by chrisd on from the trust-us-we're-with-the-government dept.

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."

2 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. ID consolidation by whiteben · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Especially since social security numbers are used as unique identifiers for virtually everything, ID theft has become much easier as of late. Steal a person's SSN and you can get a duplicate birth certificate, a duplicate license, etc. A true national ID registry would offer the same ease-of-theft: steal the ID number and you have the person's entire identity.


    But most of this is probably irrelevant. It's overwhelmingly likely that the records which were stolen were not obtained via sophisticating cracking techniques but were probably swiped by a semi-saavy employee who needs access to the records to do his job. The point is that these systems should be completely closed for maximum security. Even if a maliciously minded employee wanted to do so, he shouldn't be able to walk out with the data on a Zip disk.


    Talk all you want about the need for better computer security but to ignore the human side of the equation is to ignore the bulk of the problem.


    BEN

  2. I have this CD. by pclminion · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The CD was put out by the Oregon DMV for several years, before it was issued for the last time in 1997. I still have a copy of it. I never used the information for any purpose, but I knew people who used it for substantial monetary gain (illegal of course).

    These days, whenever some asshole cuts me off on the road, I'm always tempted to write down the license number and look it up on my DMV CD. It has everything -- SSN, Address, DOB, vehicle information, etc...

    Why such a thing was ever published, and why it was decided that the general public should have access to it, I don't know. Don't get the impression that these people acquired this CD through some diabolical means -- in 1997, you could walk right in to the DMV and request a copy. For free, I believe...