Re: [privacy] More of the Truth: VA Data Theft Hit 80%Of ActiveMilitary

["Andrew Blair" <Andrew.Blair () genmills com>]

I completely agree with redirecting the externalities and financial
liability to those who have the power to make things better, but in this
case I have a hard time believing it would matter. A corporation is one
thing, but non-shareholder driven entities are different. How do you use
financial penalties or liability against a government agency with
little/no budget? 

There has to be a way to get protection up for government agencies, but
in their case I don't believe that financial liability is the answer
(all it would do is increase the national debt even more... though at
this point what's a few billion more, eh?).

It is a systemic problem as well. Credit card companies need to stop
accepting ripped up and re-assembled with invisible tape applications,
and the credit granting and verification systems as a whole need to be
improved. This problem is not on the data collectors alone. 

Andy B


-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Dittrich [mailto:dittrich () u washington edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 2:14 PM
To: Young, Keith
Cc: privacy () whitestar linuxbox org
Subject: Re: [privacy] More of the Truth: VA Data Theft Hit 80%Of
ActiveMilitary

I can't stand this.  I just saw a TV "news" report on this incident,
which quoted some silly ID theft prevention company (who is probably
drooling over the money they're going to make from this and other
incidents.)  Their top three recommendations:

        1. Buy a shredder
        2. Protect your children (who's IDs may be stolen)
        3. Watch your credit report.

So 1 and 2 have absolutely NOTHING to do with this incident, and why
should anyone (especially active duty military personnel) HAVE to spend
time watching their credit report to make sure that whoever stole this
data doesn't use it?

I can't wait for someone to come up with a "Support the Troops"
movement that results in pressuring Congress to change laws about how
hard it is for someone to prevent being a victim of ID theft and to put
the costs on those who lose our data.

Young, Keith wrote:
> > Ok, can you imagine being the poor shnook that stole this laptop 
> > thinking he could get $200 bucks for it in a pawnshop or elsewhere?
>
> I'd bet that the stolen laptop from his Aspen Hill home (in Montgomery
> County) was sold at one of our fine pawnshops long before this 
> incident was in the news. Remember, there was a couple week lag 
> between the theft and when this hit the papers...
>
> --Keith
>
> Keith Young, Security Official
> Department of Technology Services
> Montgomery County, Maryland
> phone - (240) 777-2955
> _______________________________________________
> privacy mailing list
> privacy () whitestar linuxbox org
> http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/privacy


-- 
Dave Dittrich                          Information Assurance Researcher,
dittrich () u washington edu              The iSchool
http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich   University of Washington

PGP key      http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/pgpkey.txt
Fingerprint  FE97 0C57 0843 F3EB 49A1  0CD0 8E0C D0BE C838 CCB5
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