Nice to Know Our Stuff is Safe

Posted on May 5, 2005 by glasscastle

These stories just keep on coming. The number of people
in our society with the knowledge to take advantage of these gaffes is
growing exponentially as the young conscienceless whippersnappers who
grew up with this stuff acquire the skills.

In this area, the only defense is a chaotic life. Good luck to anyone
who tries to steal the Dowbrigade’s identify, they have no idea what
they’re getting in for…

Arbella
Mutual Insurance Co. of Quincy was offering unrestricted access to
the Registry
of Motor
Vehicles
database
through
its own website
until a Salem man noticed the security breach and raised concerns
about the potential for identity theft.

Joel P. McNamee, 22, said he received some paperwork from his insurance
agent over the weekend and noticed a website address at the bottom
of one of the pages. The website, www.arbella.com/RegistryAccess/entry,
gave him
access to the Registry of Motor vehicles database.

He said he was able to look up anyone by name and obtain their address,
date of birth, license number, and driving history. In most cases,
he said, he was also able to obtain the driver’s Social Security number
by looking
at their historical records.

”Once you had the license number you could cross-reference it to get
all sorts of different things," he said. He said the personal
information contained on the database would be a treasure trove for
identity thieves.

from the Boston Globe
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2 Responses to Nice to Know Our Stuff is Safe

  1. Mike Walsh says:
    May 7, 2005 at 6:10 pm

    Thanks for the info. It turns out that the insurance company in question, Arbella, has a great senior discount for drivers over 65. I signed my mother up for it last year around June at the recommendation of our local insurance agent.

    In September dear old mom was the victim of multiple identity theft scams. Save $400 in auto insurance, lose $30,000 in identity theft. Such a deal.

  2. Karen Stopford says:
    June 8, 2005 at 11:12 pm

    I had heard about this last month and just today received an email from a friend indicating that he had received a letter from Arbella stating that they had experienced a computer break-in, and his information may have been stolen. Have you heard of any additional issues with Arbella, or do you think this is a follow-up in case of some ancillary consequences to the registry access snafu?

Comments are closed.