Latest Oklahoma data loss puts 225,000 at risk
Securitylaptop held data on Oklahoma section 8 program clients
BY VALLERY BROWN
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Published: April 30, 2009
A laptop computer containing the personal information of about 225,000 Oklahomans was stolen from a city home last week.
Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency officials said Wednesday that the names, Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, birth dates and addresses of clients of the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program were on an employee’s laptop that was stolen in an April 22 burglary.Multimedia
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Oklahoma City police Capt. Steve McCool said the burglary was reported at a home near 7600 N Post Road in Oklahoma City on April 22. The front door was kicked in, and the laptop was stolen, along with jewelry, a camera, a gun and another laptop in the home.
McCool said investigators swept the home for fingerprints but recovered none.
Another burglary was reported at a nearby home that same morning, McCool said.
Shockley said the agency is upgrading its security and encrypting its computers but had not yet made those changes. The employee worked in the field assisting clients and was allowed to take the laptop home.
A letter sent to affected clients over the weekend advised individuals how to protect their credit and said the laptop had two layers of password protection — one to log in to the computer and another to access the secure files.
"We believe that it is unlikely that the information can be retrieved from the stolen equipment,” the letter states.
However, Mark Weiser, associate dean and director of the Center for Telecommunications and Network Security at Oklahoma State University, said that passwords, even two, won’t be enough if the thief knows what kind of information is on the computer.
He likened it to a locked box inside of a locked car.
"The worry is in them realizing the value of the data is more than the computer,” Weiser said.
"If they want what’s inside, it won’t be very hard to get to it.”
Weiser said there are many ways to break passwords or get around them. He added that encrypting computers can help keep sensitive materials safe.
Two other cases of information being compromised have occurred in Oklahoma in the past two months.
The Department of Human Services announced last week that the Social Security numbers, names and dates of birth for as many as a million people served by the agency were compromised when an employee’s laptop was stolen April 3. That laptop has not been recovered and the information on it was not encrypted.
In March, data contained on a flash drive of an Oklahoma Employment Security Commission employee was lost.
It contained names and Social Security numbers of about 5,000 Oklahomans. It also was not encrypted.
The Oklahoman’s Watchdog Team: Looking out for you. Visit NewsOK.com/watchdog.
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Eric: you are right that the thief is very, very likely out for a quick buck and has no knowledge. You are wrong that it takes a master's degree in computer science to get the data. My 5-year-old could practically do it, from what we're being told. It's trivial. But your point is that the THIEF is unlikely. I agree.
I ask, which is more lucrative to a hit man (laptop thief who actually makes the grab):
a) $500 for the hardware. eBay or brother's friend's girlfriend's sister who wants to buy it. Easy, done.
or
b) $25,000 from "the mob" -- those who do have the so-called "master's degree in computer science" who would gladly take this laptop off the thief's hands and pay him in gold for it?
Are we ready to just cross our fingers and hope that an ignorant thief is also not interested in the laptop's weight in gold from an upstream buyer who has an affinity for thousands and millions of stolen SSNs?
Dan Yost
Chief Technology Officer
MyLaptopGPS.com
Stillwater, OK
The way things are these days a lot of security is a big necessity. Employers should be fined by the government big time for allowing this to happen. I thank God I am not in a position where I have to be on any kind of government assistance. Sucks to be them.