Current Events > Kansas leaks last four digits of SSNs for thousands of state employees

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https://gizmodo.com/kris-kobach-s-office-leaks-last-4-social-security-digit-1822415622

Prior to receiving notice from Gizmodo this morning, Kris Kobachs office was leaking sensitive information belonging to thousands of state employees, including himself and nearly every member of the Kansas state legislature.

Among a bevy of personal information that, according to a statement on the website, was intended to be public, the Kansas Secretary of States website was exposing the last four digits of Social Security numbers (known as SSN4) of thousands of current and former candidates for office, as well as thousands, or potentially tens of thousands, of high-ranking state employees at apparently ever Kansas government agency.

The combination of a persons name and SSN4 creates whats commonly called personally identifiable information, the unauthorized disclosure of which is unlawful under numerous state and federal laws. Putting these statements of substantial interest online without redacting the SSN4 information is beyond reckless; its stupid.

While scanning the records on the public website, Gizmodo found SSN4 information for employees at the Kansas Departments of State, Transportation, Education, Labor, Health and Environment, and Aging and Disability Services; staff members at Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Pittsburg State University, and the University of Kansas; serving members of the Coordinating Council on Early Childhood Development, the Human Rights Commission, the Board of Veterinary Examiners, and the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board; as well as district attorneys, correctional officers, and other law enforcement officialsjust to name a few.

Gizmodo notified the Kansas Secretary of States office of the exposure on Thursday morning, and the site was taken down within roughly an hour. A request for comment was not returned.

The forms, known as statements of substantial interests, are required for every state employee of notelegislators, state officers, and members of boards, councils and commissionsand various candidates for office. Under Kansas state law, these individuals are required to disclose any substantial financial interests they have in any businesses or interests held by their spouses.

In the interest of accountability, the information added to those forms is supposed to be public record. But the form itself also includes an optional field that asks for the last four digits of the employees Social Security number, explicitly for one purpose: to aid the state in properly identifying individuals whose full names may be shared by other state employees.

Gizmodo identified 106,834 such forms on the Kansas government website, though its not immediately clear how many contained SSN4 information. A single individual might have multiple forms; some only had one, others had eight. But at least several thousand Kansans are exposed, including Kobach himself and Bryan Caskey, the Kansas director of elections, as well as Derek Schmidt, the director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigations.

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Social security numbers are stupidly insecure anyways but we wont change because religious idiocy and anti-govt. paranoia.
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Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

religious idiocy

wait what does this have to do with SSNs?
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Fishy posted...

Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

religious idiocy

wait what does this have to do with SSNs?

And the Lord said thou shalt have a social security number.
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"Mark of the beast etc etc etc" it would be impossible to get a real, modern, citizen number registry passed.
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