Personal information is basically "personal" but with the prevalance of viruses, trojans, social engineering and crackers, it's getting tough to keep it out of public eyes once you have it on a computer server. So, it's scary to note that I saw an article over at Information Week stating social security numbers are accessible over at the USA Department of Justice website with minimal effort.
Americans use social security numbers on an almost daily basis to identify themselves offline or online. Such a blunder over at the USA Department of Justice could wreck havoc on millions of user's lives and lead to serious identity theft. Serious auditing should be done to prevent a recurrence of this nature as identity theft is rapidly becoming one of the key concerns of the information technology age. With Billions of e-commerce transactions online today, it is important that both consumers and businesses are confident in the security of the process. The are numerous IT security tools are out there but its useless if no one implements them.
The federal government is responsible for issuing Social Security numbers, but it may not be doing enough to protect these critically personal pieces of information on its own Web sites. Acting on a tip, InformationWeek was able to access Web pages that include the names and Social Security numbers of people involved in Justice Department-related legal actions. It's a discomforting discovery at a time when identity theft and fraud are on the rise.
One document on the Justice Department Executive Office for Immigration Review's site listed the name and Social Security number of a woman involved in a 2003 immigration-review case. Another document from 2002 listed the name and Social Security number of a man who was being prosecuted for committing insurance fraud. Other searches of the Justice Department's site yielded more Social Security numbers and identifying information.
USA Department of Justice site Reveals Social Security Numbers source
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