FACED WITH ANOTHER SECURITY BREACH, GOV. NIKKI HALEY SAYS SHE WANTS PERPETRATOR “BRUTALIZED”
Computer systems at the S.C. Department of Revenue were hacked on repeated occasions beginning two months ago – coughing up as many as 3.6 million Social Security numbers and nearly 400,000 credit and debit card numbers.
Individual tax returns may have also been accessed by the assailant – identified only as an “international hacker.”
“This is not a good day for South Carolina,” S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley said, adding that she wanted the person responsible for the cyber attack found and “brutalized.”
Astoundingly, SCDOR didn’t even know it had been hacked until October 10 when it was informed of the breach by state information technology officials. The “vulnerability in the system” was not resolved until October 20 – two months after the hacking attempts first began.
Unreal … it took these people two months to secure our data?
How broad is the damage from this unprecedented breach?
Well, anyone who has filed a tax return in South Carolina since 1998 has been asked to call 1-866-578-5422 and then visit this website, where they are to enter the activation code they received during the toll free phone call.
Of course the line was totally unaccessible, with recorded messages referring to “higher than normal calls.”
And assuming you get through … why would you ever trust these people with your personal information again?
This is the second scandal involving the unauthorized release of confidential information to befall Haley’s administration this year. Back in April, nearly a quarter of a million confidential Medicare and Medicaid records were improperly released to a private email address by an employee at the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS).
An angry Haley told reporters on Friday that “I want this person slammed against the wall.”
Really?
The person who needs to be “slammed against the wall” in this case is Haley. After all, it’s her administration that dropped the ball on securing this information … mere months after a major lapse at another one of her cabinet agencies.
The worst part of all this? We’re all on the hook for her administration’s incompetence.
“We are going to pay for the fact that we have to give everyone credit protection,” Haley told reporters. “We’re going to cover the cost behind that. This is the responsibility of the state to protect the taxpayers.”
Actually the state is the taxpayers … which means Haley’s not paying for this, we are. Oh … and if it was the state’s responsibility to protect its taxpayers, then why in the hell did it take two friggin’ months to close this security breach?
Depending on how much this winds up costing the state we could be looking at the biggest disaster of the Haley administration – bigger than even the “Savannah River Sellout.”
Haley wasn’t ready to provide a damage estimate on Friday, but acknowledged that “this is not going to be inexpensive.”
Meanwhile Democrats assailed the governor for her ongoing lack of focus on state issues.
“Maybe if she spent more time doing her job in South Carolina rather than traveling around the country raising money and playing politics, someone would have been paying attention and not let more than a third of our state’s personal information be compromised,” S.C. Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian said. “If she were the CEO of a company that had a third of its data hacked especially after all the public warnings of the danger of hackers, she would be fired. Too bad she has two more years on her contract.”
S.C. Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden) said that Haley’s delay in informing the public about the breach – and the exposure of their personal data – was inexcusable.
“For Governor Haley and her administration to withhold news from us for sixteen days that our personal identity information has been stolen from state computers is completely unacceptable,” Sheheen said. “And to wait until a Friday afternoon to release this information is nothing more than a slick public relations trick trying to minimize political damage.”
UPDATE: Here’s more info on the hack straight from the SCDOR website.
UPDATE II: Haley has a conference call scheduled for Monday morning with state lawmakers to discuss the situation.
***
131 comments
It’s NOT a great day in SC
Aww, you beat me to it.
Out of all the agencies, I’d imagine DoR should have THE highest security measures in place to protect against this kind of stuff. Not good. And this time, there’s no lone actor to blame in leaking the information, it is a failing of the agency itself to protect against that kind of thing.
We should have been stepping up security since the whole Medicaid leak happened. I guess that wasn’t put as a top priority across the board, and now we’re going to pay for it.
Jesus, this state gets sold out to Georgia and now our SSNs are going to be sold to the highest bidder on some black market internet site. We’re getting fucked more than Charlie Sheen!
It’s a great day in South Carolina!
IF you dont have a SS number – its a great day! lol
Lets see – state population = 4.6 mil
SC DOR lets 3.6 mil have their SS number and possbly their credit card info hacked
= Priceless
call the number and they say.
“higher than normal calls so please call back at a later date”
crap
And the website looks to be a commercial site for ..
“protectmyid.com” and it asks for a code #
——–which you get where ?
Our government at work .Ouch
has anybody called the DOR to see what their phone greeting is today?
She is such an embarrassment. We could not have a more immature public official. Oh, and if her daddy wants to show his ass, he needs to stay out of the bakery.
Like johnb I got the “higher than normal calls” message, then got a “sorry we’re closed”. At 3:40 on a Friday. Classic.
Gonna be like that for the next week. It isn’t every day you get over 3 million customers!
Within this past year I’ve had my paypal and my checking account hacked.
I don’t really trust PayPal, myself, but do you keep fairly strong passwords on your accounts?
I do. Fairly long ones. I do a lot of shopping on Ebay.
She is a stupid ugly bitch!
I know LifeLock offers an identity protection plan for $10/month. I don’t know what kind of deal SC brokered but at $10/month for 3.6 million people, that’s $36 million a month or a grand total of $432 million for that one year of protection. I could see that being cut in half considering the state is paying for it and it is a huge bulk of customers, but still, damn!
Isn’t Liflock’s call center in India? Maybe we weren’t really hacked, just a way to send income to the homeland.
Better yet – why did it take them 6 days to tell us? I guess the Govs. PR folks were busy trying to figure out how to spin this crap.
They’ve been sitting on this information well over 6 days.
The real focus should be that it took a federal agency(IRS maybe?) to tell DOR that they were being hacked, that DOR had been hacked for over two months and didn’t realize it, and that it took them weeks to close the door and another week to tell us – they all should be fired for this starting with the Governor – gross misconduct and breach of public trust.
This is another concrete example of the crumbling infrastructure in SC because we don’t want to pay for anything. We have cut taxes and cut taxes and now we will pay dearly for this major breach. These are things that can be avoided. Wait until someone hacks into our voting machines. Since that has proven to be fairly easy, we probably won’t have long to wait on that bit of breaking news!
I got through. Also ran a quick free credit report through annualcreditreport.com. All looks fine for now. I there is a way for a criminal to make a buck they will find a way no matter whatmay have been in place for safety
i have a sneaking suspicion that any state’s department of revenue being hacked is probably a first.
It’s a sting operation. Another Lexington County Sheriff Department situation that’s going to trot out folks that got $10 behind in their child support payments.
Give it a month.
Have a Great Day!! :)
Frank Pytel
If they know whose info has been compromised, why can’t DOR provide that on their website, instead of us going through a third party that is not accessible?
“After all, it’s her administration that dropped the ball on securing this information.”
And there it is: the reason the techno security types will use to bilk the State of millions of dollars, consume thousands of man hours and make services slower that crap. Using THAT reasoning every governor from this point forward will micro manage to an extreme, and follow strict cover your ass guidelines.
The person responsible is the System Security Officer who did not implement proper data leakage protection, and proper intrusion detection. That is who we paid to protect us.
Who might that be?
SCDoR really should have the proper network security appliances to protect against these kinds of attacks. Intrusion protection, firewalls, sniffers, etc. Those should all be up to date on software revisions and operated by extremely capable people, even if we have to shell out a $100k salary or two.
I agree, every business that has anything to do with IT is going to be jabbing at incompetent managers telling them how their product is the second coming of Jesus in the network security world, but hopefully we do the right thing and hire talented people and let them buy the proper tools. And by hopefully I mean it likely isn’t going to happen.
Nope, instead we’re going to piss away millions in new management positions, consultants, and other unvetted crap hardware/software. We won’t be any safer, but it’ll make those who have no concept of computers feel better.
Kinda a Filthy to make this political….
But I’m not suprised….
You make EVERYTHING under the Sun, including whether of not the Sun shines, as some sort of dirt against Obama. You are the biggest hypocritical DOUCHE BAG on the internet.
I make politicl stuff political, you F*&^in Dumb@$$…you’re just too Stupid to know the difference…
This is political. SCDoR is a cabinet agency. The Medicaid leak scandal was also under a cabinet agency. Haley should have made it top priority to increase security after those. There’s just no excuse.
*after that.
Also, there were other instances of sensitive information being leaked. Didn’t the Budget and Control Board have an issue with an attacker possibly getting Social Security numbers before?
Why should this not be political. It highlights our Governors incompetence.
This is more of an indictment of the whole system in this state and country. We replace competent, experience people with political hacks as favors for working on a campaign or writing a big check. Until we are willing to stand up and kick these lawyers and political science majors, with a compassion level of zero and an common sense I.Q. of less than zero, to the curb, this crap will continue. And I don’t care if it is Nikki Haley or Vincent Sheehen doing the appointing.
I am with BigTwat on this one. I find it incredible that WF thinks this the Governor’s fault. She maybe responsible, but DOR is under the Budget and Control Board, the infamous five-headed monster. Until it is completely under the Governor, this may be her responsibility, but it is not her fault. In fact, come to think of it, this is the equivalent of blaming Smith and Wesson for a murder. Blame the thief. Typical WF bull.
This IS political! If she hadn’t been out walking a beat for Mitt Romney and her Teabagger buddies all summer, if she had spent more than TEN DAYS in her office in July, MAYBE, just maybe she might have actually had time to do some work for the people of South Carolina. Instead she stayed out on the campaign trail whoring for this candidate and that while our jobs in SC left to go to Costa Rica, or just died (Covidien took 600 jobs to Costa Rica last month, Itron closed it’s plant and 500 jobs went away). She bleats on her Facebook page about a plant expansion and NINETY-FIVE FREEKIN’ NEW JOBS! When an administration doesn’t have an effective leader at the top, someone who is engaged and present, well, crap happens like everyone in the state gets their personal info stolen by the Russian Mafia. I’ve been predicting something like this for months…I’ve been using the hashtag #doyourjob on twitter the entire year. People talk about taxpayer waste…between her salary she’s getting while she campaigns in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and her “business trips” to India, France and London (that she had to take the whole family on), and now this, she is the biggest waste of taxpayer dollars that this state has seen in years!
One friend told me to wait a while and see if somebody attempts to purchase something on credit like a car or house. Then, find out who did it, and confiscate it, as it really belongs to the one whose number was used fraudently to get it. Seriously, WLTX is reporting that a couple, who got through on the phone, were told that DOR would be sending out letters to those affected. So, if that is true, why should we continue to call?
Did they really know since October 10?? Did it take this long to investigate, or this long to figure out how to tell the citizens? Not trying to point fingers.
Who is the young woman standing behind each of the speakers? She looks like she is about to burst out in tears.
Hopefully we will find out the cost of ensuring the identities of the tax filers. Does the 3.6 M affected people include corporations, partnerships, small business, etc?
What a total cluster!!
What you should really be asking is, if the first breach was in August, why did we NOT know before October 10th? Why did the FEDS have to tell us that we had been hacked?
Well, see what happens when this state takes nepotism over competence? Wonder how Nikki’s daughter faired?
I doubt the little girl was overseeing on-line paying..you miserable @$$hole…
To bring a child into it shows you to be one low piece of $#!*…congrats…but you’re a liberal..so I’m not surprised…
shut up, shithead.
The subject we are discussing is Nikki’s incompetence. Bringing up her nepotism and having the state pay money to her family is an example of Nikki’s corruption. So to be fair, T is right, this is off topic.
The second sentence about her daughter was a joke, but fell free to not get it.
My entire post was sarcastic.
That was meant for biggie, Jan.
I should have “refreshed” the page before posting.
Why isn’t all the info being mailed to every affected taxpayer? One would assume they are doing it this way to limit the cost of providing the service. And, one year of monitoring is inadequate, lifetime will be required.
How does this “hacking” happen at this point in time? Network security was novel in 1995.
Now that these SSN’s are out there, your credit security is only as good as the last time you checked.
Tea Party Governor. They want it to be 1910. Don’t want to waist any state money on things like computer security. Need to save it so they can pay for trips to Europe and private school tuition, and outsourcing jobs to India.
WHAT A DUMB BITCH! YES THIS POST IS IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I’M SHOUTING!
SOME BITCH AT THE DOR ACTUALLY STILL ANSWERED TEH PHONE WITH “IT’S A GREAT DAY IN SC!”
Well of course she did, otherwise Nimrata would be on the war path.
Hey Good Ole boy. She is not a bitch. She is a woman working a difficult job having to deal with POSs like you. In case you did not know a female dog is a bitch not a human. What’s your problem with women? Did your Momma drop you on your head during infancy. Do women laugh at your small prick? Most likely the latter.
Shut up Joe or Nikki, whatever the hell’s your name.
“SCDoR really should have the proper network security appliances to protect against these kinds of attacks. Intrusion protection, firewalls, sniffers, etc. Those should all be up to date on software revisions and operated by extremely capable people, even if we have to shell out a $100k salary or two.
I agree, every business that has anything to do with IT is going to be jabbing at incompetent managers telling them how their product is the second coming of Jesus in the network security world, but hopefully we do the right thing and hire talented people and let them buy the proper tools. And by hopefully I mean it likely isn’t going to happen.
Nope, instead we’re going to piss away millions in new management positions, consultants, and other unvetted crap hardware/software. We won’t be any safer, but it’ll make those who have no concept of computers feel better.”
Bingo!
The best security is NOT putting information on the internet.
Also, purge Windows from all government agencies no matter how much ignorant users like it. It’s simply too vulnerable, and there are Free and Open alternatives with whatever level of contract support desired and which can be secured to NSA standards.
Open Source software is good enough to run Google and the London Stock Exchange. The bonus is that when the State CONTRACTS for a piece of software it can NEVER be vendor-locked. Pay for the app, bid out future support. Apps developed this way have limited cost and don’t represent a perpetual revenue stream (“tax”) for Microsoft. Further, the public can read documents on the same software they were composed on for free by downloading the appropriate office suite.
Agree!
*The best security is NOT putting information on the internet.*
Exactly.
That is the irony of the Borg Queen saying “this is not going to be inexpensive.”
More incompetence heaped on top of an already astounding pile.
This is the smartest thing I’ve seen on here in a while. Which means probably that most people won’t understand a bit of it. But you’re right.
I’m making bumper stickers that say “Honk if you’ve been Hacked!”
Just how long did it take for them to tell us?? Benghazi at the state level!!!!
Ten days is a long time on the internet. This should have been disclosed to the public immediately so they could secure their accounts.
Obviously everyone in State Government was trying to cover their butt and keep it all secret. Note that they dumped it on Friday to limit the media attention.
Next week they’ll blame this on Obama, Unions or the poor.
The workers who came to replace the bridge over the interstate last summer,(‘it could fall any day’)never returned-no money.Now,THAT’S something to worry about…
Will the FBI get involved?
Haley deserves the guillotine for this disservice to the citizens of South Carolina. How dare she fail to inform us of this for TWO MONTHS?!?!?
There’s all kind of hacking shit going on. While I’m not a porn scanner at all (I have all the sex I can handle at home), I got a message that my computer was “locked down” for viewing porn and gambling [I don’t do computer gambling, and don’t normally gamble at all – except for my $50 in quarters in the slots whenever I go to Vegas or Atlantic City] and that if I paid the FBI a $200.00 fee (“fee certificates” only available thru a number of sites selling a “fee-paid” certificate) and they would not “prosecute” me —- If you get a FBI message, it’s a scam (I was surprised how poorly it was disguised). While “they” want $200.00, Best Buy in Lexington can unlock your computer for $29.99 and sell you a reasonable Anti-Virus cheap. AOL.com will give you one all-inclusive McAfee “everything” if you are an AOL member-subscriber. FBI agent I talked to said they are not involved at all, and they have many more important things to do rather than charge people for legal use of a computer [sub-teen porn is not included].
Malware isn’t “hacking”. That lockdown message is referred to as “ransomware”.
BTW Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download. I don’t inflict McAfee or Norton on the Windows systems I build.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/security-essentials-download
Another internet browser such as Firefox or Chrome is preferable to Internet Exploder.
Most malware isn’t delivered by porn. That’s a myth. It can lurk anywhere including websites whose owners don’t know it exists, and on Stupid Email Forwards as attachments.
Most of the stuff that we see come in our repair shop comes off of church websites. But it will hijack IE and take you to porn! (lol) More than one red-faced husband or son has come into our shop with their laptop and an angry female insisting “PLEASE TELL HER *I* DIDNT’ DO THIS!!!” lol. Around here, church websites are so malware, spyware and virus-ridden, it’s not even funny. And we agree to stay away from IE (any version), and we recommend Kaspersky. McAfee and Norton, in our opinion, is just more malware. BTW, if you are one of those people who HAS to use IE for work, not anymore. Chrome has a plugin that will mimic IE but keep safety measures in place. Just google Chrome IE Plugin.
You can rest assured the electronic touchscreen voting machine you will be soon be using is 100% secure.
Obama-Biden: 36 votes
Romney-Ryan: 28 votes
sKrypt_k1dd13-Anonymous: 813,420,678,144 votes
TEN DAYS from discovery to disclosure.
Here’s your new “transparency”, teabaggers and straight-red-ticket sheeple. Enjoy! Bask in the satisfaction of knowing that they took PLENTY of time formulating their political damage control, before the Governess issued forth, seething with her thoughtfully crafted righteous indignation. Hell hath no fury like a woman who takes her time to figure out how to act really mad…
Holy crap. Holy, holy, holy CRAP. This makes my head hurt, just trying to comprehend the magnitude of the culture of narcissistic self-preservation that pervades this administration.
Nikki Haley should be arrested, charged with treason against the State of South Carolina (remember– the citizens ARE the state), and locked away in a very, very unpleasant place for a very, very long time.
Holy CRAP.
I have to go lie down now.
At my staff meeting this evening this issue came up. 6 of my senior staff are fromnout of state and all but one has had the same thing happen in their state. One indicated that the state only admitted to the breach when a local paper broke the story attract a month of investigate work.
Not unique, not Hayley’s fault and bound to happen again. There’s lots to blame on the SUB but this ain’t hers.
Attract = after… stupid Kindle.
Yeah, we know, Colonel, it’s Vince Sheheen’s fault. Losers get the crap dumped on their desk while winners stay above the fray.
Do you know anything about leadership? Is that why you failed to make Brigadier General? Or, perhaps a better question: “Are you a “light” Colonel or a “Full-Bird?”
Based on your volume of BS, I’d guess the former.
Today’s quotes:
“This is not a good day for South Carolina,” S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley said, adding that she wanted the person responsible for the cyber attack found and “brutalized.”
“I want this person slammed against the wall.”
This simple minded, immature, wench should restrict herself to “smack talk” on “FGF” or “TNet” where bravado, testosterone/hormones rule, and where wise counsel and deliberate action is absent and/or abhored.
“Back in the day” it was referred to as “all show and no go.” Later it became all talk and no walk. Today it’s “smack talk,” short-hand for “I ain’t got nothing but words and a key board.”
Go away, Nikki, just go away.
She sounds like what she is…an immature, juvenile, joke of a chief executive….ridiculous statements!
What can SLED and the Gov. do to a hacker in China, Iran or any other foreign country? Answer, not a DAMN THING!
What a joke Keel and Haley!
Slammed against the wall? If she has been listening to any of the specialists who’ve been working on this, she doubtless knows that these intrusions are usually generated from outside the U.S., from some country with minimal legal controls. She really doesn’t have the slightest say in what, if anything, happens to the perpetrator(s).
What do you expect from a Bamberg redneck?
I have this vision in my head of a movie-type russian mafioso walking into Haley’s office and in a thick russian accent saying “So you want to slam me against a wall and kick me? Lady, I can make you disappear easier than I can kill a fly. Your pretty little shoes do not scare me. Maybe you should practice on children first…eh?” She thinks she’s so badass. She would pee those pretty pink panties (if she wears any) if she REALLY had to deal on her own with some of the people she’s threatening. I also find it humorous that she referred to the hacker as “him”. How sexist. As I pointed out in my blog, I’m pretty damn smart. I have a degree in computer science. If I wanted to be a hacker, I probably could be. And if she wanted to fight me, I could probably kick her ass, because *I* don’t fight like a girl. Of course, when girls wanted to fight me back in the day, I usually just laughed at them.
I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! Today, (November 20, 2012) I called that number the 6 O’clock news said to call. The job of securing our data is being outsourced to INDIA!!!! I asked the guy with a thick Indian accent what country he was from and he said, “I can’t tell you due to our security protocol.” I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! As much as S.C. people need jobs, they go ahead and outsource the job to India?!! The people there in India wanted to know everything from our tax return. I had to give them my birthdate, physical street address, and every bit of sensitive data that would be found on my tax return. So now, another country has all that information!!!! Also, I have a PO Box and they would not allow me to give them that address along with my physical mailing address. They would only accept the physical address. I explained to the stupid person on the other side of the phone (who barely spoke English) that I DO NOT have a mailbox at my home and get my mail from a PO Box. They said they would mail the information back within 7 to 10 days to let me know if I were affected!!!!!! Well, I won’t receive it!!!! I told them that, but the idiot just could not comprehend it!
Nikki Haley needs to be released from her job NOW! She is so immature. I just saw the information on the TV last night, November 20, 2012 and she said, “It is hard to keep information safe with 70’s technology.” If that is the case, then why hadn’t she thought of doing something about it BEFORE something like this happened!!!!!! The internet was not available in the 70’s, so she is lying. Also, her comment that she wanted the person responsible for this to be “brutilized.” Well, she is the person responsible for this. We are all smart enough to know that we have to prove a person’s guilt through the courts and then a judge will impose the proper sentence. Nobody gets to take the law into their own hands and “brutilize” anyone!!! She needs to think before she opens her mouth! If she is like this when she addresses the state publicly, just imagine how she is when she is not on camera, or is she too busy taking trips all over the world with taxpayer money? We the taxpayers should not pay for this mess. It should come straight out of the paychecks (including hers) of those who we pay to secure our information in S.C. An ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure. Had she NEVER heard of that before? Do the officials of S.C. not care enough about us to at least encrypt our tax return data? If that is the case, then we don’t need to send them a tax return. South Carolina pays too many taxes for what we get in this state anywayV. Looks like there are a lot of people in the state house with their fingers in the cookie jar! Before her, we had Mr. Wonderful out screwing some woman in Argentina. Now, we have this crazy woman who NEVER says, “I made a mistake” or “I did not do enough to protect you, the people of South Carolina.” She can kiss her re-election goodbye. Why don’t we just do what California did to Gray Davis??? I know why, because we in South Carolina don’t demand that we have the right to FIRE someone who is out playing on our dime or too stupid to encrypt sensitive information. We need the right to fire people not doing their job!
“You can rest assured the electronic touchscreen voting machine you will be soon be using is 100% secure.”
Sleep well.
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/1954.html
Here’s why it happened. Each agency is its own freakin’ silo, and they continually reject any effort that would force them to work together. I sat on the state committee for several years and each time someone would propose a mandate related to security, the agency CIOs would say, “hey, you can’t force us to do that!” And, sure enough, no one could. So THAT’S why this happened.
Also, SLED refuses to join the 21st century and put funds towards cybersecurity. They were offered free education and they refused. They were introduced to the right people who could help, and they refused. In their minds, everything still requires a big-ass SUV and lots of guns. Other than that, screw it. (literally in some cases)
Over the past five years, data has been stolen from SC on at last five occasions — rather large steals. And all we’re doing is what we’ve always done — blame others and say that it’s just as bad in other states.
SLED was a joke under Stuart/Keel, a bigger joke under Lloyd/James and is now totally inept under Chief keel!!!
SLED is continuing to live off the reputation of Chief Strom and Captain Gasque from m,any years ago.
You can take this to the bank.
Sled and DOR wanted to release info much earlier. Haley was “traveling”, which is code for raising money and building her network. She delayed to today cuse she got free yesterday and then had a little time today to prepare for the lies she told today.
Yep. Spot on. She’s been rooting around in the Upstate for the past week, taking credit for new job announcements she had absolutely nothing to do with.
Madame Governess- Would you please call a press conference to outline the steps you’re taking to alleviate the bottleneck of about 3.7 MILLION South Carolina citizens who can’t get through to the toll-free number, in an
That’s the oldest trick in the PR play-book. If there’s damning news, wait ’til late Friday afternoon to release it. By Monday morning, it’ll be old news & the rage will have run it’s course. Sanford’s dumb-ass incompetence is exceeded only by Haley’s arrogant incompetence.
Or in the PR-play-book,make sure one or both governors are out of the country. Rumor Mark is in BA and Nikki was supposed to be traveling out of this area.
…edit… in an effort to prevent their day-to-day lives from being derailed by this unprecedented breach of privacy that’s happened under your watch?
No? Well, okay, then. Carry on.
The guy who left you the tip on The Wire about Mike Garron being fired from DOR was trying to tell you something. Wasn’t Garron their CIO?
I googled his name and he worked for DOR in IT.
Oh damn. Give me a break was right on target….FITS could have started poking around long ago….
What day was Mike Garron escorted out of DOR? I heard about this too – didn’t security walk him out?
From their website just now- they still show him as being the POC for security.
Limiting Access to Personally Identifiable Information
We have taken steps to limit access to personally identifiable information to support staff who require access in order to perform their assigned duties. We have notified and instructed our staff of their responsibilities concerning the protection of personally identifiable information.
Contact Us
The person responsible for the administration of the Departments privacy policy is Michael D. Garon, CIO. (803)898-5586.
Epic Epicness. Call the hacker and ask for her emails as well. LOL@Fail.com
Wow…….and no mention of the FAIRTAX anywhere in this article.
At least there was no mention of the tax rebate. Thank God! After all, if having to beg the Feds to bail us out isn’t enough to kill the idea, a sudden expense of taxpayer-funded credit monitoring should be, not to mention we need to spend some money to better secure shit like this.
Perfect!
Next time the DOR comes sniffing around for more money I will tell them to get it from the people they gave my information to.
:)
having happened on her watch and at her cabinet agency, it is time the bitch be impeached
This is what happens when you have a governor sho spends all of her time out of state campaigning for her next job.
Thank you…EXACTLY correct!!!!!
Foreign Hacker. This is a new kind of terrorism. A new kind of war. Cyberwarfare. Shame on our state government for not doing a better job of protecting South Carolina citizens. Our national government needs to stop jerking around and begin to treat incidents like this just as they would attacks on an embassy or US territory…..oh, wait a minute…….
It is safe to say that since the hackers have the majority of our SC social security numbers, and several hundred thousand debit and credit card numbers, our state government has not been taking our digital security seriously. Every independent computer expert would agree our iVotronic touchscreen system has unacceptable security problems. When you go cast your ballot in 11 days, please realize how foolish it is go in and press a button, receive no receipt, and naively hope it gets counted as you intended. It is time to face facts. We can not have a secure election without paper ballots. Why should we risk our vote getting hacked, too?
Here’s an idea. Why can’t the electronic machines ONLY spit out a paper ballot card? We could then make it entirely up to the voter to make sure the card is correct and then put it in a ballot box. They could then do a quick electronic count, but the official count would have to come from counting the ballot cards. It’s the best of both worlds.
From the electronic world:
1) No question who you voted for (hanging chad, circle filled in poorly, etc., eliminated via computer formatted printing).
2) A quick pre-count of the results.
3) Large type and headphones enabled to better guarantee privacy for disabled voters.
From the paper world:
1) “Immune” to hacking. (You check your own paper ballot, your fault if you don’t.)
2) Can do actual, hard recounts of ballots.
Didn’t we solve this problem with our voter ID law?
What is really called for here is a tax cut.
Just thought I’d get the ball Rollin for my Republcan friends !
I Mean isn’t that the solution to ALL our problems!
Where one plus one always adds up to three.
From, “The Wire” (fitsnews)
……………..
SC BUREAUCRAT FIRED
You should investigate why Mike Garon was escorted out of his job and the building at the (S.C.) Department of Revenue a few weeks ago. We’ve watched this guy take kickbacks from a few vendors for about 12 years, and no amount of complaints would get our procurement division (Budget and Control Board) or Attorney General investigating it. Apparently Mike pissed off the right person finally, and they launched an investigation that led to his immediate removal after a nearly 15-year reign of curruption and terror. I’d love to know what they finally uncovered and how closely it matches what we honest vendors (he nearly ran out of business) have always known.
FITS: Wow. We typically don’t get comment from cabinet agencies but we’ll check it out.
I got the code number at least but anything else they said there was a high volume of calls try back later.
Code number is scdor123
Everyone gets the same code to enter at the Experian site…..why not just put that out in the media for everyone rather than make people call into an automated system that is overloaded??
Were they handing out this same code yesterday? It is possible they were handing out unique codes and then decided with something more simple, but I’m not sure.
Why is everyone so upset…aren’t the fans of this site for “limited government”, “low taxes” and “liberty for all…?” Well welcome to your reality. You want limited government and low taxes…well that means the state may only be able to hire 1 IT security person rather than the 2 or more that’s needed. Or that work may be outsourced to the “private sector”. In other words an outfit in India or China. I bet you’d rather be paying a penny more in taxes than potentially having your identify stolen now huh…?
So spare me your phony outrage at this situation. It’s what South Carolinians voted for. We’ll see if America winds up in this same situation in 10 days. So before you start screaming at Ms. Haley you need to take a look in the mirror.
Does the average South Carolinian care whether his state agencies are staffed with professionals and perform competently? Not that you would notice. Dumping grounds for the connected and fertile soil for the promotion of compliant yes-men. Who is so foolish as to believe that excellence is reason to rise in them? You don’t choose the bridge that most needs fixing, to lead the list you choose the bridge that a donor to Sen. Greasypalms wants widened to raise his development-property values. Similar in choosing the IT contractor and scheme. Or choosing the [fill in the blank].
Performance? Expertise? Pish and tosh! To rachet down a notch in juristiction, do you think Jake’s daughter was the most competent to run Lexington’s emergency services? Maybe it’s best try to get caught under a tree in Saluda.
However, even though we demand no excellence, much will be the moaning now that chickens have come home to roost.
You two should be working for the Haley or Obama PR team.
To think you have taken yet another example of govt incompetence and spin it into a cry for more taxes is incredible work on your part.
Only in govt can you make such an argument, because in the private sector incompetence gets you fired or demoted, certainly not a raise or more money for your agency AFTER THE FACT.
Let us all not forget that there were people responsible for the security and funds available to do the job. It simply was not done successfully. If they needed more they should have been on record requesting it.
“You two . . . .”
“To think you have taken yet another example of govt incompetence and spin it into a cry for more taxes is incredible work on your part.”
Do you actually see the words you imagine are in the posts?
I have re-read it to make sure. Obviously you feel my deductions were bad in reading your statement, so do me the favor of clarification of yours.
Bobby Harrell knows who the hackers are?
The next announcement you hear will be that Catherine Tempelton has been appointed head of the DOR.
She has the reputation of tolerating uselessness and incompetence less than most agency heads.
Got to LOVE SC when they make a announcement of this magnitude on a FRiday afternoon, then tell you to call a number, that is overwhelmed with volume, then closes way earlier than announced on Saturday afternoon! WTF????
I wonder what steps Haley and her hubby took to protect their own family’s information while she was busy NOT TELLING US SHIT FOR TWO WEEKS.
And then she finally releases the news . . . on a Friday afternoon. Incredible.
Jon Stewart will greatly appreciate this news about South Carolina.
Now that they have given one code to all, will SC taxpayers have to pay for all the world to have the free reports for a year from EXperian. What is that costing us-$$$, SC tax payers… Has SC DOR let our information out already to yet another outside party for some kind of validation/verification without our consent? Has anyone read the privacy notice of the third party the state is coercing it’s citizens to enroll with? From what I am understanding it to say, is that they can collect any and all information on you and do with it as they please, even sell it to who ever they see fit. If so, how deep is this rabbit hole going to go?
I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! Today, (November 20, 2012) I called that number the 6 O’clock news said to call. The job of securing our data is being outsourced to INDIA!!!! I asked the guy with a thick Indian accent what country he was from and he said, “I can’t tell you due to our security protocol.” I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! As much as S.C. people need jobs, they go ahead and outsource the job to India?!! The people there in India wanted to know everything from our tax return. I had to give them my birthdate, physical street address, and every bit of sensitive data that would be found on my tax return. So now, another country has all that information!!!! Also, I have a PO Box and they would not allow me to give them that address along with my physical mailing address. I explained to the stupid person on the other side of the phone (who barely spoke English) that I DO NOT have a mailbox at my home and get my mail from a PO Box. They said they would mail the information back within 7 to 10 days to let me know if I were affected!!!!!! Well, I won’t receive it!!!! I told them that, but the idiot just could not comprehend it!
Nikki Haley needs to be released from her job NOW! She is so immature. I just saw the information on the TV last night, November 20, 2012 and she said, “It is hard to keep information safe with 70’s technology.” If that is the case, then why hadn’t she thought of doing something about it BEFORE something like this happened!!!!!! The internet was not available in the 70’s, so she is lying. Also, her comment that she wanted the person responsible for this to be “brutilized.” Well, she is the person responsible for this. We are all smart enough to know that we have to prove a person’s guilt through the courts and then a judge will impose the proper sentence. Nobody gets to take the law into their own hands and “brutilize” anyone!!! She needs to think before she opens her mouth! If she is like that when she addresses the state publicly, just imagine how she is when she is not on camera, or is she too busy taking trips all over the world with taxpayer money? We the taxpayers should not pay for this this mess. It should come straight out of the paychecks (including hers) of those who we pay to secure our information in S.C. An ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure. Had she NEVER heard of that before? Do the officials of S.C. not care enough about us to at least encrypt our tax return data? If that is the case, then we don’t need to send them a tax return. South Carolina pays too many taxes for what we get in this state. Looks like there are a lot of people in the state house with their fingers in the cookie jar! Before her, we had Mr. Wonderful out screwing some woman in Argentina. Now, we have this crazy woman who NEVER says, “I made a mistake” or “I did not do enough to protect you, the people of South Carolina.” She can kiss her re-election goodbye. Why don’t we just do what California did to Gray Davis??? I know why, because we in South Carolina don’t demand that we have the right to FIRE someone who is out playing on our dime or too stupid to encrypt sensitive information. We need the right to fire people not doing their job!
Hacked? Not. Just another con-game, worth alot of off-shore account money. Credit monitor just happens to be out-sourced to India?
Most Asians in power NEVER admit to making a mistake.
Indians (NOT Native Americans) even more so. I’ve worked with a number of them since 1980 and never once did they EVER admit to making a mistake. A code of honor is hardly existent in their world
They are wired different
You need to know that going in.
Queen Namrata will stay put and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
We’ve been duped.
All the better reason to abolish the present SC income tax and be like Tennessee,Nevada, Florida and the other states that do not have a mirrored version of the IRS
The code is scdor123
Thanks for the free credit report, Haley…ahem, taxpayers.
This could have some element of an insider participation.
What if we were not hacked. Just another Little Miss Bamberg disqualification which is all fabricated? We’ve been punked.
Regardless of the mess we are all in, the words Gov.Haley used were entirely inappropriate and childish. “Slammed against the wall” and “Brutalized”?? Besides being against the law to do such things, it shows the drama and immaturity she demonstrates time and time again. Yes, the bad guys should be caught and tried and sentenced to prison with restitution required. But, how do we trust her leadership when this keeps happening and her attitude is to want to brutalize people.
“But, how do we trust her leadership when this keeps happening and her attitude is to want to brutalize people.”
Pssssssttttt…here’s a little secret: That’s the MO of 99% of those in gov’t and gov’t itself. It rules by brutalization.
Nikki Haley wants to “brutilize” and “Slam against the wall” the person responsible for the hacking of our entire S.C. tax return. I agree. Where do we line up to “brutilize” her and “slam her against the wall”???
The SC tax payer should not have to pick up the bill for this. It should be taken out of each person’s paycheck responsible for not having our info encrypted. She should give up her personal security and she should move out of the state mansion and pay her own bills. The money saved just on what she uses to pamper herself would pay for a lot of this crap!
Will this immature woman ever take responsibility for her imcompetence?? The buck ends with her and I am tired of her trying to pass it on to someone else.
South Carolina needs to make it possible to fire immediately those who are imcompetent in their state, just like California did with Gray Davis. Nothing is ever going to change until the people who foot the bill in South Carolina get the power to force change. Also, we as a nation need to do the same thing at the national level. God help our nation!!!!!
Everyone affected by this hacking needs to be isseued a new SS number and the stolen ones cancelled after the proper credit of SS money paid in has been given to the new number. Also, they need to be given lifetime protection against identity theft. All this needs to come out of the budget of Nikki Haley’s security and personal expenses. That should be enough money to take care of everything without the tax payer having to spend a dime!