John's Tech Blog

Is your 'sensitive data' out there?

Aside: If you work with confidential data pertaining to others, please stop for a minute to think about what you do with it, and remember to treat it as seriously as your own. Identity theft is a real problem right now, and criminals will use anything they can readily find -- shred anything with SSNs or account numbers before discarding/recycling.

States Rush to Remove Data on Residents From Websites: "Jon Swartz writes on USA Today:

States across the USA are furiously removing sensitive data from official websites.

The task highlights challenges facing states with sites full of personal information on residents, from Social Security numbers to bank account numbers.

Such data is available in Florida, Ohio and at least a dozen others, say privacy experts who provided USA TODAY with links to public websites. Many state laws require property records be posted online in the interest of open government. Once, the data was confined to books in state offices, says Daniel Solove, a privacy law professor at George Washington University. 'As data is made available online, it becomes a privacy concern,' he says.

It can take months to remove SSNs and other data, say privacy advocates like David Bloys, a retired private investigator in Texas. In the interim, ID thieves could cherry-pick data, he says.

More here."

From: Fergie's Tech Blog