ANOTHER 200,000 AFFECTED BY EPIC LAPSE IN SECURITY
As votes were being tallied across South Carolina on Election Day, another count was underway … the growing total of South Carolinians affected by an unprecedented cyber security breach.
According to The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper, the number of taxpayers impacted by the breach at the S.C. Department of Revenue (SCDOR) has expanded to 3.8 million – up from initial estimates of 3.6 million. Additionally close to 400,000 debit and credit card numbers were stolen along with tax information for nearly 700,000 businesses.
Virtually none of this stolen data was encrypted, despite claims from S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley that South Carolina used “industry standard” data protection measures.
That claim continues to be debunked.
“There are lots of standards requiring data encryption in the financial, health care and retail industries, but none that comes to mind saying it’s OK to leave social security and debit and credit card numbers in a digital format anyone can read,” technology writer Antone Gonsalves wrote recently.
Haley’s claim that “nothing could have been done” to stop the breach has also been exposed as a lie.
“Whatever the DOR was doing to protect our information wasn’t enough,” a recent editorial from The (Anderson, S.C.) Independent Mail noted.
Ya think?
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10 comments
The number will go up
Have a Great Day!! There won’t be many left with Odumbass in charge.
Frank Pytel :)
They’re gone. The difference between 3.6 mil and 3.8 mil isn’t that much. If you paid taxes in SC anytime recently, you are FUCKED.
Imagine, just for a second, how this is going to cripple us attracting jobs to this state. Imagine having to explain to an employer how their SSN, their employees’ SSNs, and their business is going to be safe being in this state. Imagine telling them this while Haley is going around parading this nonsensical claim that “there’s nothing we could have done” to prevent this. Imagine telling them this when SCDoR didn’t even know they got hacked until someone told them, and then had to hire an outside company to close the loophole. Imagine telling them this while SCDoR believes it is justified in its lack of encryption of sensitive information.
Haley’s main worry is probably something along the lines that she won’t get these fabulous “business” trips to Paris and Japan anymore. No one will want to come here.
I always send checks, used to send them certified because half the time they are lost to whatever agency I send them to but with the advent of online check images I now spare that expense(in time & money). Last time the last agency lost one I just e-mailed them a picture of it cashed(that agency was SCDEW) by them.
lol…they can’t even track rec’d money
Anybody know anyone who’s been victimized yet?
Yep, I’ll say it again…she shines like a diamond in a goat’s ass, don’t she?
Sorry, never been interested in looking — why did you look?
Hmmm – I might be interested if Haley has one — but just maybe.
When will someone at the SCDOR be held accountable? Both the Director and the Deputy need to be swept out immediately. How in the hell can something of this magnitude happen and these people don’t tell the public and/or even wait a couple of weeks to do so, and keep their jobs?
Haley says “Industry Standard”? What industry standard? How many other state tax agencies in the US have been hacked to this extent? How many other state tax agencies don’t encrypt their citizens information? I believe the industry standards would be the state tax agencies, not the banking industry.
All decisions made concerning security of our records, went directly through these two people and their trusted “advisors”. Nothing is done at any state agency without the approval of those at the top. I’m sure the Deputy and other leaders have delighted in firing and having employees walked to their car in humiliation for doing much less. It’s easy to be sanctimonious in their positions with employees, but sometimes the chickens will come home to roost. Call the news agencies and walk them to their cars.
I guess they thought between the hurricane and the election everyone would forget about this situation.
Nero “fiddled” while Rome burned …… DOR’s Top Management was too busy “Whacking Off” while our identities were being stolen.
Let’s face it, South Carolina. The Governor and SCDOR are just dribbling in numbers when the plain truth, I believe, is that the “hacker” got everything SCDOR had on the internet regarding tax returns. Why would the “hacker” only take some information when they had the credentials (password) to all the information and all the time in the world to take it without SCDOR noticing? They got it ALL.
The 3.8 million number isn’t very well explained either. Is it 3.8 tax returns, or people’s SSN numbers. If there was information from 1998 then I filed 14 times during that period, so did everyone else who has lived in SC for the last 14 years who paid taxes. Multiply the number of people who filed for 14 years in SC and the number of tax returns available is enormous. So what did the “hacker” get? All the returns? Only 3.8 million of the enormous number of returns? Or is it specific SSNs belonging to 3.8 million? If so, why only 3.8 million and how were they selected? It just doesn’t make sense. The only thing that does make sense to me is that the “hacker” just took it all and planned to sort it all out later. Why doesn’t the Governor or the SCDOR official just go ahead and be upfront with us and explain exactly what the “hacker” got and admit that the “hacker” did not do something incredibly brilliant technologically to get it because he didn’t have to – the “hacker” was given the credentials by someone who had the ability to give it to him, and then the “hacker” went in just like any of the 250 people with credentials. Why aren’t the people we put in authority being honest with us?