Cache of Health Human Services records an ID thief's dream

Cache of records an ID thief's dream
Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:04 AM CDT

http://www.thetimesonline.com/articl...5700817015.txt

BY JOE CARLSON

219.662.5339

GARY | For untold weeks, a potential treasure trove for identity thieves
of personal information on thousands of the city's most vulnerable
residents sat for the taking behind an open door with no lock and no key.

City officials left the confidential records in an old downtown building
the city stopped using in 2004, perhaps never considering the
possibility that someone would steal the building's entire back door --
as happened recently.

Until Thursday afternoon, the records sat in four file cabinets just
around the corner from the doorless entryway that faces the alley behind
1710 Broadway.

Two city workers boarded up the building about 3 p.m. Thursday -- two
hours after The Times called the Gary Department of Health/Human
Services to inquire why the records were accessible to anyone with the
curiosity to look inside.

Inside the file cabinets, roughly 2,000 records are alphabetized by last
name, displaying home addresses, dates of birth, Social Security
numbers, incomes, martial and employment status, and other information
about people who once came to the city for help.

All files were for needy residents who came to the department -- when it
was in the Broadway building -- for financial or other assistance.

Federal laws require agencies and companies that maintain sensitive
records, including Social Security numbers, to have reasonable
procedures in place to protect consumers' privacy. Such information is
protected because identity thieves can use it to create fake credit
cards and hatch other schemes to defraud consumers and companies.

Also stored inside in the mothballed building are personnel records of
city employees, restaurant inspection reports, code enforcement
citations, tow stickers and a document titled "Mayor's Cabinet Level
Status Report, June 27, 2002."

"Those records should have either been taken with and maintained or
destroyed -- not just left," said former Mayor Scott King, who stepped
down in 2006. "Whoever made that choice didn't make a good one. They had
two choices, and they didn't make either one."

City assistant press secretary LaShawn Brooks said she was told all of
the files were stored in "an area that was secured." Told that a
reporter could walk in and look through them Thursday, Brooks said city
officials plan to remove the records sometime soon.

Shirley Hawkins, director of the Health/Human Services Department, said
Thursday she was not aware the sensitive files had been kept just inside
an open doorway on a public alley.

"Whoa," Hawkins said, after hearing the files contained sensitive
personal information.



A state of disrepair

The city of Gary bought the building at 1710 Broadway -- a former Gary
State Bank building -- from First Chicago NBD Bank in 1997, county
records show. The deed does not state whether the building was purchased
or donated, and Brooks could not say what it cost to renovate it into a
city building.

The city moved offices out of the building in 2004 to consolidate office
space, King said.

It was not clear when the metal security door was stolen or when
miscreants broke through the glass doors and began heavily vandalizing
the building.

Shattered glass litters the floor. Pop machines are toppled and ripped
apart, and piles of old clothing and city records are strewn randomly
near the old bank vault. Porcelain sinks have been torn from the walls
and smashed.

Someone appeared to have taken up residence in a front office, leaving
behind a pile of old clothes, an empty beer can, three kitchen knives
and the scent of urine. That office is down the hall from what federal
officials say is a cache of private information on citizens that should
have been protected.

A Social Security card, Indiana driver's license and Colorado inmate
release ID were strewn in the office.

Amid the disorder, a bud vase with red plastic flowers sits on a
secretary's desk near an inbox still full of mail and memos from 2004.

Records on the vulnerable

The former bank building was once home to a wide variety of departments
within the city's Health/Human Services Department, including health
inspections, rodent and mosquito control, environmental sanitation and
water testing.

But some of the most sensitive information left behind appeared to be
related to the Emergency Referral Service, which people down on their
luck turn to get donated clothing, food and information on further
assistance.

For example, one resident listed in the files received clothing and
assistance from the agency in 2003 after her Polk Street home sustained
heavy damage in a fire.

The records, which date back at least to the early 1990s, appear to be
case files on clients.

Allowing any resident's personal information to be vulnerable is against
federal law.

"Entities that maintain sensitive consumer information have a duty to
take reasonable steps to protect it," said Joel Winston, associate
director of the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection in the
Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C.

Jurisdiction over the criminal identity theft prevention laws falls to
the U.S. Department of Justice, which declined to comment on the Gary
situation.






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...