Texas, South Carolina & Utah victimized by significant data breaches.
By Mary Scott Nabers
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas — In Midland earlier this week, officials of the Midland ISD were contacting parents of students saying Social Security numbers and birth dates of about 14,000 current & former students had been compromised. Those parents were advised to take precautionary steps to protect their students’ credit and mitigating child identity theft. When it comes to cybercrimes, we are all potential victims.
It’s hard to ignore the threat when data breaches are no longer surprising. Cybercriminals are very sophisticated hackers whose commandeering of personal information from both public and private databases has created high demand for cybersecurity.
Testifying before a congressional hearing this week, major retailer Target’s chief financial officer told lawmakers that the recent data breach involving Target affected up to 70 million Americans. Hackers retrieved data that included:
Names- Mailing Addresses
- E-mail Addresses
- Phone Numbers, and
- Credit & Debit Card information
Analysts say the effects of the data breach could cost the company up to $1 billion.
Also testifying was the chief information officer for Neiman Marcus, another well-known American retailer. He said a malware attack on their networks accessed credit and debit card data affecting up to 1.1 million of its customers.
Because government entities are so fearful of data breaches, cybersecurity has become a big ticket item. In fact, a recent survey from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) revealed that network security is now the top priority of state chief information officers.
Testifying before a recent congressional subcommittee, NASCIO’s president said states have become targets. He attributed the increase in data breaches to the fact that the federal government’s efforts to keep information secure have made it difficult to infiltrate their systems.
That causes hackers to turn away from federal systems and focus on state information systems, which are less sophisticated.
- Texas, South Carolina and Utah have all been victims of significant data breaches.
Last December, South Carolina’s Department of Employment & Workforce reported the personal information of more than 4,000 of its current employees was exposed. An agency employee, who has since been terminated, reportedly downloaded the personal information of 4,658 current and former employees to a personal device. That data could, according to agency officials, include payroll information, social 
security numbers and bank account information.
In 2012, hackers accessed a Utah state government server and stole social security numbers of up to 280,000 people and more not-so-sensitive information from up to 500,000 additional individuals.
The Texas State Comptroller’s Office in 2011 suffered a data breach when private data was apparently posted on a public server. Officials reported that approximately 3.5 million records were 
breached, including 1.2 million records of education employees and members of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
Another 2 million records from the Texas Workforce Commission were included, along with more than 280,000 records from the Employees Retirement System of Texas, both current and retired state employees. The records included names, mailing addresses, social security numbers and some driver license numbers.
Within the last two weeks, two public-sector education entities in Texas reported possible data breaches. Texas State Technical College notified its employees that their personal information may have been exposed after unauthorized access. TSTC officials said there is no indication any of that information was stolen, but confirmed it was made vulnerable and, out of an abundance of caution, notified employees.
Security solutions company Rapid7 reports that the number of records exposed in the government sector is steadily increasing. The company said that more than 250 data breach incidents occurred from Jan. 1, 2009, to May 31, 2012, resulting in more than 94 million records containing personally identifiable information being exposed.
Security must continue to be a top priority for public officials. With so much Internet dependence, online attacks will continue to increase.
The risks are real.
Mary Scott Nabers is President & CEO of Strategic Partnerships Inc., a Texas-based firm specializing in public sector research and procurement. She is a former Texas Employment Commission, and Texas Railroad Commission Commissioner, and author of Collaboration Nation, How Public-Private Ventures Are Revolutionizing the Business of Government.
