Monday, May 2, 2011
Someone to Blame
I am not sure if you got to be one of the 3.5 million Texans recently informed that there was this large security breach with our personal information, but I was. I got this awesome letter informing me of the State’s incompetency. And while I am happy that the State is trying to make amends, and I do appreciate them trying to make up for it by giving me free credit report monitoring for a year that is simply not enough. And although I agree more should be done to correct this ridiculous and inexcusable error, I do not agree with all of the blame being put on the Comptroller. Comptroller heads to Court after Security Breach I mean, this is the lady who handles the State’s budget and monetary funds this is not the State’s IT team. Shouldn't they be the ones monitoring the "information lines" we are sending information through and making sure they are encrypted and secure, not the Comptroller?! I mean, I work with sensitive information myself and if I was conducting my daily business with my supposedly secure server and then, as it turns out, the server I am using is not secure, you aren't going to blame me the AP Clerk nor the accountants, someone in IT is going to get their butt jumped. So, why is that not the case in this situation? Personally it makes me wonder; when I was unemployed I used the Texas Work Force Commission to help me find a job. They too are part of the State system; does that mean my info is going to be leaked again? Oh! That’s right, that's one of the ways it was leaked to begin with; so again, shouldn't we be pointing our finger at the people whomever they maybe that handles the State’s "secure servers”?
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I'm sure by now everyone has heard something about how the office of our Comptroller, Susan B. Combs had accidentaly displayed millions of Texans' private information onto her website for all to see. It's good to know that whenever things become grim and money becomes tight...that we can always count on a little identity theft paranoia to boost people's trust and morale. As you may know, this leak has people up in arms and very upset. In response to the leak, Combs' office has offered free credit monitoring through CSIdentity (who coincidentally contributed to her campaign in 2008 and 2009) for one year and for anyone who may have been affected. Susan Combs is now also being sued on behalf of the 3.5 million people affected and the lawyers are asking that each of us get $1000 in damages for the trouble.
ReplyDeleteI found this story on a blog called "Polly Sy in the Lonestar State." In Ms. Sy's blog was a post titled "Someone To Blame" where she argues that obviously this leak was not our Comptroller's fault. She believes that Combs is responsible for the site because she is the Texas Comptroller BUT that she is not personally in charge of upkeep and security of the website. That should have been the I.T. (Information Tech) department's job.
Well this I can somewhat agree with because Ms. Sy is right....it's not Combs' job to make sure that the website is bug free and doing its weekly defragmentations. But unfortunately Texans (well... people in general really) need SOMEONE to blame when things go wrong. I believe it would have been harder to try to sue the I.T. team that messed up and didn't tell anyone about it, than it is to sue the Texas Comptroller who is in charge of our money and never allowed to make a mistake. I think that she is obligated to take responsibility for the mistake because it happened under watch and it is required of any good leader. But we all know that we are out to get her because of the $1000 each that we could possibly get out of it. I know... it's hard to look past that.
Just like when Congress messes up and someone does something really stupid. What do we do? We just blame Obama and make him out to be the bad guy. Why? Because it's just easier that way. He was in charge and should have known better than to allow anything bad to happen. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
Well things shouldn't be that way folks. Yes, of course I would like $1000 free dollars (that I don't have to work for) but Susan Combs is already providing the credit monitoring for us. Most of us already know that we can fight any possible identity theft with that service alone. You dont have to take advantage of our already poor state and of this woman's good name. The free credit monitoring alone will likely cost our state around $21 million and that number will soar if all 3.5 million of us are awarded the $1000 each in damages. Polly is right, cut the lady some slack and stop looking for ways to hurt Texas' economy more than it already is. Good article "Polly," thanks for bringing it to our attention. :-)