Reply #30: (MI) Audit: State voter system left information vulnerable [View All]

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Audit: State voter system left information vulnerable

By Amy F. Bailey / Associated Press

LANSING -- State databases with confidential information from registered voters and driver's licenses in Michigan were not adequately secure and were vulnerable to computer hackers, state auditors said in a report released Friday.

The state elections and technology departments agreed that the systems were vulnerable, but they told the Office of the Auditor General they are not aware of any time information in the Digital Driver's License System and the Qualified Voter File was compromised. The departments also say many of the vulnerabilites have been addressed since the time of the audit.

State auditors said the departments of state and information technology did not ensure that an outside contractor effectively secured the Digital Driver's License System, which may lead to identity theft. The system included information from about 7.2 million driver's licenses and 1 million personal identification cards in January 2004.

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"We made a lot of the corrections," he said. "You can't ever say that a system is 100 percent secure. People are out there every day trying to figure out how to hack" into computer systems.

On the Net:

Michigan Office of the Auditor General: http://audgen.michigan.gov

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http://www.detnews.com/2005/politics/0503/19/polit-121704.htm