Following a weekend theft putting state lawmakers at risk for identity theft, one politician is demanding action and calling for a state audit to investigate security practices at the Capitol and government offices.
A state legislative human resources employee brought home personal data of state Assembly members, complete with their social security numbers and had it stolen from her car, according to a Friday police report.
While the twenty-six-year-old employee was at the gym, a thief stole her keys from her locker, proceeded to unlock the car and stole the report with the information, among other personal artifacts.
The report contained 150 social security numbers of state legislators.
Although it appears no state senators were affected by the recent robbery, state Sen. Ted Kanavas, R-Brookfield, sent a formal request for a state audit to investigate the security practices of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the state government.
""Personal information should be handled with due care, and individuals should be able to trust that our government is doing everything possible to ensure their identity is being protected,"" Kanavas said in a letter to state Sens. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, and Suzanne Jeskewitz, R-Menomonee Falls, the co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
Kanavas, the author of legislation that would require businesses and government to notify individuals if their personal information has been accessed by a third party, said he is ""going to continue to push for more reforms in how individual information is being handled.""
Kanavas asked the audit investigate the following practices: divulging personal information to third party contractors, data destruction and transportation, notifying those whose information has been accessed and web posting.
Though the recent incident prompted the state audit, this is not the first time state information has been made public. In December 2005, a hard drive from the Department of Health and Family services was found and still readable in a computer dump in Africa. According to Kanavas, the hard drives contained names of children, families and billing data.
This past December, 171,000 taxpayers had their social security numbers printed on the outside of their tax booklets, putting them at risk for identity theft. State Reps. Tom Lothian, R-Williams Bay, and Brett Davis, R-Oregon, members of he Assembly Committee on Consumer Protection and Personal Privacy, held a hearing on Jan. 25 to obtain more information about the incident and hear testimony about state security practices.
To understand why the incident occurred, representatives need more information.
In a letter to the Department of Revenue, Lothian and Davis requested copies of e-mails about the release of information regarding the tax form incident.
""The committee hearing was very productive. The secretary laid out the steps the department was taking in order to stop this from happening again. Unfortunately, it appears as though the committee does not have all the information on this security breach,"" said Davis in a statement.
