Like Taking Candy from a Database
Candice “Candy” Smith, 44, of Blue Springs, Mo., pleaded guilty to making unauthorized inquiries into data aggregator LexisNexis’s database of non-public information on millions of consumers, such as driver’s license information and credit-history data.
Many people might assume that only cops can look up this type of information, but Smith was granted access to the database by virtue of her job as a bill collector for the Center for Medicaid Services, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.
So reports Brian Krebs in “Prostitution Suspect Used Data Access to Keep Tabs on Cops.” In “Ex-Gov’t Worker Sentenced In Prostitution Case,” The Kansas City Channel reports that she “pleaded guilty in July to unauthorized computer intrusion.” Which is interesting, to me, as it seems she was authorized to access the data she used. Are additional, unauthorized uses really covered by a criminal statue? It seems (unfortunately) more likely that what she did is a civil matter of a contract violation.
Chris Hoofnagle has some good bits on how lax audit logs are in “Data Brokers’ Anti-Fraud Databases Used for Crime (Again).” Note that he’s referring to Choicepoint, not Lexis-Nexis when he says “we obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act that strongly suggested that the government could not audit officers’ use of Choicepoint.”
Dammit.
I really think laws need to be written with the idea that all identity information is already lost, and the heaviest penalties should be put on misuse or unauthenticated transactions.
Well, if you want to know the true story, keep your ears and eyes peeled for a breaking news expose soon. I did use Lexis-Nexis to look up folks I shouldn’t have–and I pled guilty to that. I am now a felon who cannot get a job. I cannot support my children. I am losing my home to foreclosure. I have paid a heavy price for what I did. But when the police corruption surrounding my investigation is finally revealed, I think that everyone will realize that the methods used in targeting me, a woman who was a call girl 1-2 days a month, were much more corrupt than anything I did. As I stated…keep your eyes and ears open. You will be appalled at the lengths the Kansas City Police Department will go to make a headline. They killed a gnat with an atom bomb. They attempted to destroy one good woman’s life–a single mom’s life–and for what? How was justice served in my case? They could have charged me with a misdemeanor of prostitution…like they do other call girls. They could have forced me to resign from my job for using Lexis-Nexis, like they do other employees they catch using their computers inappropriately (don’t even ask me how many porn users the government employs!!!). Instead, they married up two unrelated activities to make a headline, and make me a felon. Their overzealousness was not warranted. And I made a decision that if the embarrassing details of my private life could be made public, so could the embarrassing details of a few of KCPD’s finest. Please don’t gloat over one woman’s demise–because you don’t know what this has cost me. I am a good person who made a bad choice–but I did not deserve this, nor did my children.
Well, if you want to know the true story, keep your ears and eyes peeled for a breaking news expose soon. I did use Lexis-Nexis to look up folks I shouldn’t have–and I pled guilty to that. I am now a felon who cannot get a job. I cannot support my children. I am losing my home to foreclosure. I have paid a heavy price for what I did. But when the police corruption surrounding my investigation is finally revealed, I think that everyone will realize that the methods used in targeting me, a woman who was a call girl 1-2 days a month, were much more corrupt than anything I did. As I stated…keep your eyes and ears open. You will be appalled at the lengths the Kansas City Police Department will go to make a headline. They killed a gnat with an atom bomb. They attempted to destroy one good woman’s life–a single mom’s life–and for what? How was justice served in my case? They could have charged me with a misdemeanor of prostitution…like they do other call girls. They could have forced me to resign from my job for using Lexis-Nexis, like they do other employees they catch using their computers inappropriately (don’t even ask me how many porn users the government employs!!!). Instead, they married up two unrelated activities to make a headline, and make me a felon. Their overzealousness was not warranted. And I made a decision that if the embarrassing details of my private life could be made public, so could the embarrassing details of a few of KCPD’s finest. Please don’t gloat over one woman’s demise–because you don’t know what this has cost me. I am a good person who made a bad choice–but I did not deserve this, nor did my children. The information which was NOT disclosed was WHY I looked up the police sergeant. But this truth will soon be disclosed. So until then, please refrain from casting too many stones my way.