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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."
The problem with such a system of course is that the implicit assumption is that the computer is always right. Should someone figure out how to exploit such a system in this way, people will obey the computer without question. And we all know how good the various software companies are at keeping their software free of exploits.
Even with our current social security number system, identity fraud is destroying some peoples' credit ratings, making their lives extremely difficult through no fault of their own. Even if they prove that someone has stolen their identity, sorting out all the dings in the credit record can take years.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I got a wake up call the other day.
If you call the USPS and ask them to
confirm someone's address (or even
your own), or to find out if someone
has done a change of address (filling
out the yellow move form and sending it
to the postmaster) - they won't give
out any of that info, citing privacy, etc.
Whew, what a relief that they are
keeping your info under lock and key.
Not!
They will sell it by the bulk apparently
for top dollars to anyone (who can pay
that top dollar) who needs to keep track
of people moving around.
Big Brother, look out.
One other thing... wasn't Oregon the state that at some point had all of their DOL/DMV info available on the Internet, free-for-all?
:)
Yes indeed. In fact we used it to find out who owned some vehicles that were abandoned on our property once. They took it down fairly quickly, it was only up for a few weeks, I think.
Personally, I hope more things like this happen, it might keep the number of people moving in down a little bit, which would be nice.
Senator Maria Cantwell (Washington) is trying to amend some federal laws for Identity theft. Been on the news almost daily. Seattle Times
Some of the reforms are needed.
Require businesses to turn over to identity-theft victims copies of any records reflecting fraudulent transactions.
Require consumer-credit-reporting agencies to block information that appears on a victim's credit report as a result of identity theft.
Give businesses a new civil avenue to recover damages from identity-theft criminals in federal court.
Change the statute of limitations for identity-theft victims to file a claim from the time when the fraud occurred to the time when the consumer discovers the fraud.
Would a centralized database for such a database (i.e., the US Id. Card) provide security advantages? Isn't there a reason that Oregon was the first state?
Here's what the ACLU thinks: "Why Does the ACLU Oppose a National I.D. Card System?"
A friend of mine bought a used PC for his mother. When he booted the thing up it turned out to have windows already installed. So he clicking around and found a nifty Icon. He clicked on it and wouldn't you know up pops this window which turns out to be a database interface to several thousand Patient profiles for the whole region where he lives. Turns out the Local Health center had sold off some mustered out PC's and forgot flatten the Hard Drives first. That is how easily this happenes.
This sort of thing will allways happen and especially if you hand this sort of information over to private companies. Information will become more easy to access and governments and corporations will abuse it. They regard it as an incontestable right. Just wait till they start putting genetic profiles into these databases and selling them to insurance companies, banks and employers for "Risk Management and Customer/Employee evaluations" Won't it be fun to have your dirty genetic secrets floating around for the public to scrutinize.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Y'know, it shouldn't be possible to use publicly available information as accepted proof of identity in the first place. There's no need for it.
Every computer should ship with a smart card reader. Driver's licenses and credit cards should be replaced with smart cards that can do challenge/response or public key encryption, and never let the private keys out of the card. The public key (or whatever it takes to recognize the card is authentic) can be in databases, but that isn't proof of identity. Since the private key isn't anywhere but the card, you can't get it without stealing (or at least physically examining) the card. If the card is reported stolen, you have to show up somewhere in person for fingerprints and an eye scan to get another. It would be very hard to steal one person's identity, and stealing the identity of all Oregonians just wouldn't happen.
IIRC, the same scheme would take away a lot of the motivation for Microsoft's passport infrastructure.
Her measure to Congress is based on a Washington state law that went into effect in July. Under the measure, retailers would have to provide identity theft victims with copies of all fraudulent records, and credit agencies would have to block bad credit information on their reports if they were the result of identity theft.
Why buy someone elses identity? There are plenty of spooky sites around the net which deal with offshore banking, which offer second citizenship or identity cards. Usually in your own name, but also in a name of your choice.
The pricelist includes items like:
- international driving permit: $200
- international student card: $65
- novelty cards (body guard, pilot (!!), delta force, PI etc.): any four, $100
- press card: $2-500
I'm sure there are many more sites like these, (in fact there are). I remember seeing a site once (imsil.com - anyone knows what happened to them?) which offered a new identity for around $6000. It was a passport to some x-UK colony, which didn't (officially) issue passports any more, but the old one were still in use.
-Kraft
Live and let live
We're also the first (and still only, AFAIK) to have a plan providing health care for the poor (beyond Medicare shit).
And the first (and still only, AFAIK) state to pass a "death with dignity" act, which Ashcroft just tried to block, which an (oregon) federal judge just un-blocked.
We were also the first state to piss on Ashcroft's face by refusing to help him question his 200 local "suspicious immigrants".
Oregon isn't a such bad place (assuming you're liberal) but sometimes we do dumb shit, too! Oh well.
I've got it, too. It most certainly was NOT free, however. As I recall, I acquired my copy for about $25. That was from someone who had got it directly (for $100 or so) from someone who had paid about $750 or so for the CD. There was/is a local guy here who had been acquiring the CD, legally, from the DMV, since at least '94 and we always got the yearly update from hin.
There's NOT that much information on the CD, though (regarding licenses), even on the last year. There's all the information that's on your normal license: Driver's license #, name, DOB, sex, height, weight, class, restrictions and some other crap which I don't know what it means.
Here's an example from the License's database:
"LAST, FIRST A","1234 NICEROAD DR NE","","SOMEWHERE","OR",24,97123,67,4,7,"M",603,20 0,"",0,"D","","N","","B",91,3,25,95,3,15,99,4,7,95 ,3,16,0,0,0,"1234567"
Here's an example from the plates database:
"QXT637","1","FORD","","4S","1FAPP36X3LK123456", "9 013464418",90,1,98,3,31,"LASTNAME, BOB",8,7,20,508616,"LASTNAME, JANE",9,8,31,6564,"123 SOSOLANE DR","","FLORENCE","OR",97789,20,"",1,96,2,26,0,0," ","","","","","","",0
Everyone I knew who had this CD saw this coming. I have no idea why the DMV thought it was a good idea to publish this information, but they did and a bunch of people bought it. Suprise, suprise, some people used it for Bad Things. Live and learn, I guess.
Exocet Industries - Taking over the world, one computer at a
I've lived in Oregon for longer than you have by about 2 years. It is a funny place, but I love it.
Yes, you can't pump your own gas. This is blatantly done to increasing employment opportunities for the uneducated. It seems to work better than just handing people a check. Obviously you haven't quite had the blessing living through a really hard winter yet, or you might be a little less upset about being forced to stay in your warm car.
The "kicker check" is just a hallmark of the right wing tidal wave crashing over the entire U.S. It isn't much different than any other state, and is in some ways better.
Referendums are abused by demogogues, typically "something for nothing" right wing demogogues who pretend that you can just legislate roads, schools, and essential services to cost less than they actually do. It's bizarre how the extreme right in the U.S. in many ways resembles the old time communists; I'm almost expecting to one day hear some radio blowhard to start saying "Get rid of IRS and all taxes, and all services stay same because we then live in socali- I mean, libertarian utopia! Da Da!"
Climatalogically speaking, Oregon is two states. The west west side, and the frozen east side. Studs are essential in the east, and absurd in the west. You legislate a way out of that one.
Portland's urban growth boundary hasn't substantially raised housing prices, despite the propaganda from the builder's associations. It has, however, preserved over 30,000 acres of viable farmland, which employs 50,000 people in the area. It's one thing to sprawl in the desert, quite another to do it over some of the most productive agricultural land in the U.S.
And finally about the Oregonian. Yes, they are a moderate Republican newspaper, but they do report the news - including the topic of this slashdot headline. Identity Theft rings operate all across the U.S. and in other nations, but it was the Oregonian that broke the story about the one our police caught.
I don't call that lousy reporting.
I've lived in Oregon for about 22 years. Then I hopped across the river into washington. Let me tell you:
;)
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.
Thats not the end of it. Oregon has no quality control laws either. Look at the pump. There is no inspection sticker on the pump, like here in WA. Dateline even did a special on this several years back. They showed some gas stations in Oregon had the regular unleaded pump and the super unleaded pump attached to the same holding tank. They also showed lots of contaminates in the gasoline, including used motor oil in the diesel fuel. And a majority of the pumps always showed more gas being pumped than actually pumped. And thats the pump, were not talking about snotty pumpers. In high school many many times I asked for 10 dollars of gas, and if I got out of the car and look at the pump, it read like 7 dollars, despite the attendent saying he pumped ten, etc etc. And then theres the many arguments with the cashier about how I asked for X amount of gas, but the attendent claims I said fill, or something. (like I could afford a fill in highschool with a 68 chevy with a V8. I was using lunch money for gas a lot of times
One time last year when the wife and I carpooled, and we got gas in Oregon, (she hates pumping gas), I pulled into a unical. And I saw the attendent smoking while he was pumping gas... Needless to say, I got the hell out of there as fast as I could... Sometimes you just have to wonder. Some gas stations you have to get out of your car to go to the cashier to prepay, then you wait for the guy to pump, then you gotta go back and get change. Other gas stations you hand the guy your Visa, and just sticks it in the pump and gives it back to you. And I especially hate how they try to pump more gas in the car to make it an even number, and then they either overfill, charge you for air, or they just spill gas all over your car. And they don't bother using the gas cap holder on the lid, they just toss it somewhere. Sometimes they forget to put it back on. Sometimes the drivers are idiots. One time I saw a lady drive off with the nozzle still sticking out of her tank.
As for oregon taxes. What sucks more is if you live in washington and work in Oregon. I still pay oregon taxes, but don't get a single benafit. I went to the portland library, and they said I would need to pay $75.00 a year since I'm out-of-state. If my kids go to Oregon State Univ, I need to pay out-of-state tuition, even though I pay Oregon Taxes. A recent poll showed that the county in Washington state I live in currently pays more in Oregon taxes then all but 5 counties in Oregon. And of course I couldn't vote on the tax increase/decrease measures a little while back, because I'm not an oregon resident. Hmmm, sounds like taxation without representation to me...h
Don't know about Oregon's total tax burden, but I always heard the opposite. No sales tax, but has the nations highest property taxes, and their income tax is pretty high as well. I'm a homeowner in WA, and my property taxes are lower than my aunt's house in OR, even though she has a smaller house and smaller lot. WA has no state income tax, but since I work in Oregon, I get screwed. An Oregon rep once told me the reason I have to pay Oregon Income tax is because there are, "Certain amount of jobs in Oregon, with a certain amount of tax dollars associated with it. It doesn't matter where you live, because you took an Oregon job away from an Oregonian, and are still liable for the associated tax"... I've never heard such BS.
Oregon roads are torn to shreads. ODOT (Oregon Dept of Trans) had this brilliant idea that instead of using gravel to "sand" the roads when it snows, to use salt instead. If they decided to use just salt, it wouldn't bother me, because I can just rinse down the car. But they opted for a blend!!! So now in addition to rock chips on my car, I have to worry about salt getting under the paint. Whoo hoo! And don't get me started on public transportation. They created this stupid light rail system called MAX. Its an expensive train that goes nowhere of interest. In fact, on the westside, they could've chosen a route that stops by many popular places. But instead they chose a route that doesn't. A few miles north or south would've been awesome, but instead they chose a useless one. In fact it features a stop in front of an abandoned building. And since its above ground, you STILL have to deal with traffic. Especially since we have bozos here who try to walk in front of them, or try to "race" them with their car through an intersection.
And get this. A little while ago, the chief of ODOT was interviewed about the freeway problems. Especially on US-26. ODOT just received federal money, and he was asked if they were going to use it to widen US-26. His response was, "That would be an innappropriate use of the funds". He said that they would use the money to renovate some parks in Tigard, and build a bike path, etc etc. He said that local money should be levied to widen US-26. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the federal money supposed to be used for maintenence of the federal hiways, namely: US-26, I-405, I-5, I-84, and I-205?!!! In college one of my classes talked about the federal freeway system, and that's what we learned. That's why you'll find federal freeways that seem useless, but are federal so the state doesn't have to pay as much to maintain them. Our lives would be MUUUUUCH improved if they widened all the freeways here instead of built that bull sh*t system called MAX.
Then to alleviate traffic ODOT goes and puts a carpool lane in I-5. Normally I like carpool lanes, living in LA while going to college... But guess what ODOT did. Hmmm, I-5 traffic sucks? Lets turn one of the lanes into a carpool lane. Yup, you heard me right. They took a 3 lane hiway with bad traffic, and made it a 2 lane hiway with a carpool lane. To make matters worse, its only a carpool lane from 3 to 6 pm. On top of that, no notion of a double yellow like california, so you can enter wherever you want. So you have to constantly be aware of people trying to get in... Net effect: People drive like 10mph in the carpool lane, so they don't rear-end the people who just pull in. And since its only from 3-6pm, it makes the lane useless. Did I mention the carpool lane is only like 3 miles long?