The Rag Blog: Aren't There Awards for This?

16 April 2008

Aren't There Awards for This?

Oklahoma Leaks 10,000 Social Security Numbers
by Evan Shamoon / April 16, 2008

In what can be called a true Homer Simpson moment, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections managed to leak 10,000 social security numbers by way of an incompetent Web programming team. You see, when the Oklahoma DOC created the state's Sexual and Violent Offender Registry, it essentially put the personal information of those on the list queries into the URLs (Web addresses) linked to each individual.

What's worse, the gaffe means that it not only leaked the personal data of tens of thousands of people, but also enabled anyone with basic Web knowledge to put anyone he or she chooses on the state's sexual offender list.

And yes, that was the Department of Corrections. High five, dudes.

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