Personal Info of 3.5 Million Texans Was Publicly Accessible

SpaceGhost writes "The Houston Chronicle reports, 'Personal information of about 3.5 million Texans — including names, mailing addresses and Social Security numbers — was posted on a publicly accessible server at the state comptroller's office, much of it for more than a year.' Many of the records were for retired teachers and the unemployed, and they sometimes included DOB and drivers license numbers."

unemployed

[Aighearach]

Fortunately the unemployed are less desirable than average for identity theft, so that will limit the losses a little bit.

So?

[pclminion]

Names and addresses I can get from a phone book. SSNs are "not to be used for identification purposes." Thus, BFD.

Place blame squarely where it belongs: lending providers and others who use the SSN as some sort of magic key to an individual's identity. All it takes is a simple law and this shit could stop next week.

duck and cover

[bakamorgan]

Better duck and cover. Typical person from Texas shoot first then ask questions later.