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January 2, 2008 By Gina M. Scott
According to a report out today from the Washington Post, Social Security numbers of regular citizens, and government officials, are out there for the taking on government sites.
The report claims that the SSN's of Colin Powell, Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, Former Governor Jeb Bush and others were obtained from government Web sites. These sites, such as court and land record sites, contained private information of regular citizens as well.
Such sites are just the resource that identity thieves need to obtain personal information and start opening credit cards or applying for driver's licenses.
Read the full article on the Washington Post site.
You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/security/Government-Sites-Post-Social-Security-Numbers.html
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The issue is not access to public records, including social security numbers. Access to public records, at the court house and over the Internet, is a good thing. The issue is how we establish identity. Rather than spending billions trying to redact social security numbers dating back to the 1930s, let's try to address the real problem.