What the ???? (Ohio Data Theft Update; Time for an Independent Investigation)

Y’know, I look at this updated list (HT RAB) of what’s on the “stolen back-up computer tape” taken from an intern’s unlocked car, and I start thinking the list of what is currently NOT in unknown hands is shorter than the list of what is.

(Did I miss the “unlocked” part the first, second, and third time around? Nope, because I don’t think it was there. The June 15 Tech News World story refers to “Thieves who broke into a car belonging to an intern.” You don’t have to “break into” an unlocked car.)

I believe that my suggestion yesterday that an independent investigation take place is now a necessity. The governor and his handlers, with whom I have had no shortage of differences, are being played by someone (singular or plural) in the food chain, and if the y doesn’t watch out, this is going to hurt the governor badly. Frankly, it shouldn’t.

To be clear, if data-protection procedures were inadequate, that is an executive-level problem, and Strickland deserves at least some heat for that. But I’m willing to cut him just a bit of slack for that because he’s right on the edge (which I consider to be about 6 months, and he’s at 5) of where the blame game for the previous guys’ inadequacies (if any) and the realities of a new administration’s transition have to be considered mitigating factors (in this case, just barely).

But in my opinion, the need for an independent investigation is there because we don’t know who and what are causing the situation to continually mushroom. It’s making the governor (unfairly, in this case) look like a buffoon. To be finding out 10 days later that what was thought to be encrypted isn’t, what was thought to be locked wasn’t, and that the scope of what was stolen is still growing, is ridiculous. If the game-playing goes high enough (like to the governor’s cabinet? or a handler?), any attempted internal investigation might be compromised. It’s better to have an independent investigation now and clean house than to either never get a handle on what happened or to have the truly guilty parties engineer some kind of fall-guy/gal result.

I don’t believe Ted Strickland is foolish enough to be dribbling out the bad news like this. If he is, that’s a whole different matter entirely.

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UPDATE: Conservative Culture is not cutting the guv as much slack as yours truly. Columbuser thinks that “the way details are coming out on exactly what information was on the tape seems a bit too controlled.”

UPDATE 2: Don’t the taxpayers and others whose personal info has been compromised deserve the same level of protection given to state employees? Answer: Yes. That’s good. At about $10 per affected person and about 230,000 additional affected persons (at last count), we’re talking about another $2.3 million at least in additional protection costs the state (i.e., taxpayers) will have to bear. That’s for one year.

Here’s an underemphasized point: After the one-year expiration of the protection, it would appear that everyone affected, including the 60,000-plus state employees, will be on their own. I’m not suggesting unlimited protection; I’m just making a point that isn’t being made — which, by the way, should bolster arguments for credit-freeze legilsation.

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- June 19 — What the ???? (Stolen State Data Was NOT Encrypted)