Our Voice: Parson's attempt to shift blame for faulty teacher website must be condemned

As recently as Tuesday, the Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of Missouri teachers were accessible to anyone with a web browser and an internet connection. Thanks to a St. Louis journalist, they're better protected today.

That personal information was available, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, through an online application that allowed the public to search the credentials and certifications of state educators. Social Security numbers were not shown as part of the default display, the paper reported, but were present in the source code, which can be freely viewed in browser apps like Safari, Firefox and Chrome.

When a journalist discovered the flaw and confirmed the information with several teachers, the Post-Dispatch alerted the state and waited until the problem was corrected before publishing a story.

Gov. Mike Parson's response? Holding a press conference during which he called the Post-Dispatch journalist a "hacker," threatened him with criminal prosecution and accused the newspaper of trying to "embarrass the state."

The governor is doing a fine job of that on his own.

Read more: https://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/editorials/2021/10/15/editorial-missouri-gov-mike-parson-shows-ignorance-threat-against-post-dispatch-over-teacher-website/8457409002/
(Springfield News-Leader)