Got a letter the other day and it said this...
"On October 19th, 2013 we
determined that your information including: your name, address, phone number,
e-mail address, Social Security number, date of birth, certain demographical
information and enrollment, academic and financial aid information may have been
accessed without authorization. The
system did not contain credit card information or personal health information."
Oh, well
that's a relief, at least they didn't get the credit cards...Oh wait, did I shop at Target last month?
The Maricopa
Community College District (MCCD) is the largest community college district in
the state of Arizona and one of the largest in the nation serving over 200,000 students every year.
I signed up
for a class with them once. I know I applied
for employment on more than one occasion as well. Why anyone needed an SSN or Date of Birth for
either considering I was never employed or completed that class is a mystery.
There's
other far less personal information that can identify a person and cause far
less damage if compromised. Ahh, but I
forgot, in the post 911 era we're expected to lay ourselves bare trusting that
the recipients of our most personal of information will be good stewards. Of course, all in the name of security.
Which makes
it ironic that "security" is the very thing that's failed us.
They didn't
get the credit card information... Who cares!
Whomever benefitted from this "info-heist" now has enough
information to create scores of false identities and cause irreparable harm to
the victims of the breach.
People get a
bit too cavalier about their personal information sometimes. I live in Arizona and around the time I was
getting my first driver's license, the state actually encouraged motorists to
use their SSN as their driver's license number.
Of course that was back in the day when credit card numbers were stolen
off discarded carbon paper not the Internet.
People are
admonished to carefully control access to their private information but
increasingly we're asked to give that responsibility over to private and public
institutions that aren't worthy of that trust.
It needs to
stop. Along with credit checks on job
applications and the requirement to give your SSN for anything but obtaining a
loan or starting, not applying for, a
new job. In those cases at least you
know the chain of custody of your information.
It's your
PERSONAL information and you shouldn't be ostracized for protecting it. Especially when those demanding it obviously
can't be trusted to keep it safe.
Support
measures like Senator Elizabeth Warren's "Equal Employment for All Act" that blocks the requirement for credit reports
on job applications. That measure would
also prevent the haphazard collection of SSN's and other personal information
as well.
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