Oregon Agencies Dump Personal Records in Open Bins
Oregon is a forward looking state. Alas, sometimes this causes problems such as when two agencies dumped records with people’s private information in open recycling bins.
Identity theft is an absolute nightmare to deal with for anyone. Despite all the claims and scares you see on the web, the most common form of the crime occurs when criminals get a hold of documents containing the names and critical personal information of individuals. This is most often done through “dumpster diving”.
In Oregon, two state agencies did their best to be green by recycling their paper waste. There was only one problem for both the Oregon Housing and Consumer Services Department and State Parks and Recreation. They put documents containing the names of individuals and their social security number in open recycling bins that could be accessed by anyone! Yikes!
In an interesting twist, both agencies are now under criminal investigation. This is due to the Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act. The Act requires businesses and government agencies to maintain reasonable security measures to protect the information of individual citizens from being exposed to the general public. One can surmise that throwing such information out into recycling bins doesn’t exactly comply with the Act.
All this being said, the investigation doesn’t really help those parties impacted. The good news is both agencies are taking steps to alert those people who are impacted. A notification letter has been sent out to individuals who were included in the dumping. If you provided information to either of these agencies in the past, make sure to keep an eye on your credit report for any new accounts being opened in your name and so on.
One can surmise that neither of the Oregon agencies had any malicious intent in this case, but their situation is a lesson to all of us. Make absolutely sure that you shred personal documents before tossing them out even if you are recycling.