Suit wants $3.5 billion for state computer glitch

[Jake Kouns <jkouns () opensecurityfoundation org>]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7552578.html

Lawyer seeks $1,000 for each person affected

A second class-action lawsuit has been filed in a Houston federal
court against Comptroller Susan Combs on behalf of 3.5 million Texans
whose personal information was exposed to public access on a
government computer server for more than a year.

"We are seeking the $1,000 statutory penalty for each of these
individuals whose privacy was violated by the Comptroller," said
attorney Muhammad Aziz, of the Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels,
Agosto and Friend law firm. The named plaintiff is Sherry A. McClung,
a Lufkin school teacher.

Combs acknowledged on April 11 that her office had allowed information
transferred from the Texas Retirement System, the Employee Retirement
System and the Texas Workforce Commission to be left non-encrypted on
a computer server for longer than a year. Her office was given the
information to match against unclaimed property held by the state.

The comptroller apologized for the security lapse and offered free
credit monitoring for a year for affected Texans. Her office has spent
at least $1.2 million notifying individuals, setting up a call center
to respond to questions and hiring technology consultants to review
her procedures.

Contacted on Thursday, Combs said through a spokesman, "I am deeply
sorry for what happened and my office is taking actions to assist
those who were affected and implementing new policies and procedures
to help ensure this never happens again. I cannot comment on any
litigation, but I can say that we will work with the Office of the
Attorney General and provide them the information they need in
responding to any legal action."
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