Identity theft is when a hacker or criminal obtains key pieces of your personal information like credit card numbers, drivers license numbers, or social security numbers and uses them for profit, sabotage, or to assume your identity.

They obtain false credit, buy things - from clothing to cars, or pull any number of damaging scams.

You already know not to give your credit card number to an unknown telemarketer, have likely figured out by now that the dozen emails that come to your Hotmail account every day asking for your personal information aren’t really from your bank, and hopefully you haven’t fallen for the “I’m the son of a Nigerian businessman” trick.

You’re probably careful to give your credit card slip directly to the waiter when you leave the restaurant or the bar, and you might even shred your old bills before throwing them in the dumpster. I’ll bet you even hover over the ATM keypad when punching in your pin number so that no one sees it.

But can you trust your county government?

A reader gave me a shocking and alarming tip today… Do you have any friends that live in Cincinnati? Keep reading.

Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio. The good folks in Hamilton County are well served by their Clerk of Courts, Greg Hartman.

His department is serving their county by making information people need available conveniently, easily, and right at their fingertips. But just what kind of information?

On this website, search by name. If you know someone in Cincinnati, if they’ve had a speeding ticket, or any other ticketed infraction, you can look up a digital image of the ticket. Among other key pieces of information, these tickets include license numbers, names, addresses, birthdates, birth PLACES, height, weight and social security numbers. Furthermore, SOME of the data includes occupational/vocational information and extracurricular activities (for BMV information). You can actually view tickets, judgments, and other court documents.

Remember, this is PUBLICLY accessible information. Try it. Not even a “terms and conditions” electronic signature appears to ensure that you’ve at least committed not to use the information for dishonest purposes and establishing a trail of responsibility. They even could do what some other counties do- charge for it.

But no, in this county, everything you need to steal someone’s identity, easily accessible and free.

Oh yes. Don’t have a name to start with? Click on the link here and search by classification code (conveniently defined in a legend).

E = PERSONAL PROPERTY
F = CONTRACT OR MONEY
G = EVICTIONS
H = BMV
I = SMALL CLAIMS
A = ALL OF THE ABOVE

Then you don’t HAVE to know a person’s name to get their information. The result? Well, so far it says to me that Hamilton County, Ohio is a gold mine for con artists and scammers.

Want a little more info? If you’re interested in property in Hamilton County, go here.

Once again, great information on Dusty Rhodes and his department, but did you dig down and click on “Property Search” in the upper left-hand corner? Well, I have friends and business associates in Cincinnati, and I’m personally outraged by the fact that there are PICTURES of their house, what they PAID, and improvements and floor plans. All searchable by name.

Maps to their house, history of improvements, and lot layouts? If the right lowlife pieced it together, a ready made map of how to get in and get out without anyone seeing.

The potential for exploitation is blatant and frightening.

Calls to the clerk’s office were met with the bland and unbelievable statement, “We know it’s a problem and are working to fix it.”

A noted security expert who wishes to remain anonymous says, “The information that is being posted by the government is the same information that companies like ChoicePoint are being prosecuted for not protecting. Is there anything more hypocritical than the government enforcing compliance in the business sector while offering it up for free in the public sector? I spoke with a columnist from a large Cincinnati news outlet, and his response was that even though he knows it is a problem it is also his main source of information when researching his stories. He would never blow the whistle on his best resource. Unbelievable!”

They’ve done business for years without a website. What’s to prevent them from just shutting it down until they can get confidential information off the site?

Why can’t they require some kind of authentication first? Perhaps requiring a person to provide their social security number before displaying it from their imaging solution?

When will we hold our city, county, state and federal governments accountable for keeping our personal and confidential information safe? When can we hold them to the same level of accountability to which our government is holding financial and medical institutions?

There are more questions than answers here, but watch yourself. What is happening in YOUR county? It’s not enough to sit back and complain about attacks on your privacy or your liberty. Do something. Call someone. Make sure YOUR personal, private information isn’t out there for everyone to see.

Here are some handy links to help protect against and respond to incidents of identity theft. It could happen to YOU. http://www.idtheftcenter.org/index.shtml
http://www.fightidentitytheft.com/
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/idtheft.htm

We reached Dan Gregory, VP of Support Services for Shelby Township based security consulting firm Creative Breakthroughs, Inc. for a comment.

He said, "In this day and age access to and the proliferation of your personal information should be a main concern. If you engage in any type of online banking, purchasing, registration or any other activities asking you to povide personal information you should ask yourself the following questions:

Why are they asking me for this info? Who else might have access this info? What will they do with this info? Who might they share this information with?

Bottom line: if you dont look after your personal information, someone else will.

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