I’m glad I live in Sumner county. No one is going to steal a bunch of punch cards.

Newscoma,

Now that we know that the entire social security # was stolen, it’s certainly right to ask WHY that kind of sensitive information was a) on a laptop, and b) not secured in a locked cabinet.

The righties will tell you that the rest of the information stolen is the same stuff that candidates purchase, so it’s “no big loss.” But in addition to your name and address and social, I *believe* it also tells how you voted in the last primary — in other words, your party affiliation. So someone conceivably knows who all the Democratic and all the Republican voters are in this county. Which would be pretty important information if you wanted to swing the election one way of the other using a computer system that has proven to be easily manipulated in state after state.

Yes, I know, this is information that a campaign could have purchased. But in such cases there is a record of who purchased it, when, and why. When the information has been stolen, it could be anyone.

Tinfoil hat conspiracy theory? Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

The point is, without a paper backup, if there’s a situation such as the one I described above or something a lot less nefarious, Davidson County voters are still screwed. There’s no way to do an accurate recount, just a retabulation of a machine that was responsible for whatever problem there is to begin with. Pure genius.

It’s absolutely, positively insanely stupid beyond belief. Thanks a lot, Davidson County Election Commission and in particular the Evaluation Team that recommended ES&S voting machines. Yes, there were Democrats on that team, I know who you are, and YES I plan to give you a piece of my mind next time I see you in person. This isn’t a partisan issue, it’s a Democracy issue. Frankly I don’t understand why conservatives aren’t as up in arms about it as I am.

In terms of the identity theft issue with the social security numbers being out there, my credit card company recommended calling one of the credit agencies and requesting a fraud alert. You only need to call *one* agency and they will alert the other two.

Here are the numbers. Again, you just need to call one:

Equifax, 800-685-1111
Experian, 888-397-3742
Transunion, 800-888-4213

There are a couple of reasons that I’m not up in arms.

First, the last thing I heard about it was that the computers were brand new and contained no Election info.

Second, because it is “insanely” easy to purchase/obtain the information (sans SSNs) about party affiliation.

Third, because Democrats were the ones who demanded the current systems after Florida and have now moved the goalposts on the issue.

Fourth, I agree that it shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but it is difficult to be concerned about it if you are a Republican in Tennessee. The Democratic Party–per statute, has majority control of every county election commission in our state. Democrats speculate about complex conspiracies (or possibilities of complex conspiracies, to be more accurate) while refusing to take common sense steps to prevent known election fraud (here).

I care a lot, just not for the same reasons you do, SB.

From a PERSONAL point of view, I don’t give a rat’s patootie about the political end of things. I’ll be honest - being disenfranchised in a single election does not frighten me, in comparison to the spectre of financial ruin, with no recourse.

(This is partially because I don’t see much difference in how the two parties govern).

Do people even understand what’s at stake here, financially? Has anyone given any thought to what this means to people with assets to protect?

What’s to stop someone a thief has my social security number from signing my house over to themselves? Bank accounts? Opening a new credit account and running up hundred of thousands of dollars in debt?

When faced with that, since I see politics for what it is - a game for the political class, NOT life or death, I am far more worried about someone taking everything my family has.

So yeah, I’m concerned.

There’s a lot to stop someone from signing your house over to themselves; and given the magnitude of this, there’s likely to be protections against the other things you’ve raised.

And though politics is certainly played like a game by some, it undoubtedly has real life implications, often of life and death . . . and all done under the auspices of “law.” At least identity theft and fraud are illegal.

I agree with Slarti. Not being from the area, this particular incident doesn’t have a direct effect on me, but identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes out there.

It’s scary how little information a thief needs to open new credit cards, make purchases, etc (though signing over another’s house seems implausible). And having known a victim of indetity theft, the “protections” in place don’t do much for you. If your fortunate enough to catch it early, you’ll not be responsible for any charges, however you will be left with hefty legal bills accrued during the process of having the situation remedied and your credit rating will take a dive for several years to come.

I wouldn’t write the political ramifications of it off completely by no means, but my first concern would be assuring that my identity remained MINE.

I believe it was reported that only the last 4 digits of the Social Security number were on file. If that provides any relief.

But it is really stupid that crucial information was on a laptop computer. That is a huge no-no in the IT field. Someone should be held accountable. Hopefully it was an encrypted database. But I doubt it.

But I apologize if I sounded disinterested. Until I read the press release over at SB’s place, I wasn’t sure this report was true, but partisan jabs under the circumstances rub me the wrong way. I’d be ticked, too (and probably should be concerned because Davidson County is notoriously slow about cleaning up their voter rolls and I was registered there not too long ago).

Sorry, my response was delayed.

You’re right, dolphin. Number9, the press release linked over at SB’s site says the stolen computers contained entire SSNs.

And while some have implied that these burglaries were probably done by petty criminals, I’d disagree. I don’t think the burglars were stealing them for political reasons, but I think they were stolen by someone with “inside” information about what resources were sitting around in these gov’t offices. Hopefully the computers are not in the hands (and won’t end up in the hands) of someone who can appreciate the true value of this information.

Number9, the press release linked over at SB’s site says the stolen computers contained entire SSNs

If that is correct, then this is an entirely different matter.

There is no reason for the entire Social Security number to be used. That is a violation of Federal Law. Social Security numbers are not supposed to be used for identification. Even though this law is never enforced, it should be.

Outrageous. My family is dealing with the theft of data from the Oak Ridge National Labs. I have the same problem. To say we are pissed is an understatement. I know how you feel. It is like being robbed.

Has the local news explained what you must do to protect yourself?

I’m not sure about how it’s being treated by the local media, but I agree that they should devote substantial air time to this public service.

There’s no way of knowing if the thieves were knowingly stealing data or if they were only concerned with the hardware.

If this is simply an economic theft (a crackhead stealing the hardware to sell for drug money) then there’s no worries. Remember the concern on data ’stolen’ on laptops from the secret labs in New Mexico turned out to be just that.

It could be the data is meaningless to the thieves, and would be as quickly ‘erased’ as, oh, an entire post on a blog somewhere…as if it never existed.

To be replaced by a nice, cleanly wiped slate, and, oh, Ms. Pacman…