Q&A: How Betty Ostergren makes life a little harder for ID thieves

Computerworld - If Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin finds himself in the news this week -- and he does -- because of concerns that his office's Web site is exposing Social Security numbers and other personal information online, he can thank -- or blame -- Betty "B.J." Ostergren for the publicity. For nearly five years, the feisty 57-year-old former insurance claims supervisor has led a one-person crusade against county and state government officials around the U.S. Her mission: Stop them from posting public records containing Social Security numbers and other personal data online. It's a "stupid" and "reckless" practice that she says has turned the sites into a feeding ground for identity thieves and other cybercriminals.

Ostergren's site, The Virginia Watchdog, boasts a list of public records containing Social Security numbers belonging to well-known figures -- including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Texas Congressman Tom Delay -- that she accessed from county sites. She also contacts people whose data she finds and asks them to put pressure on officials to take down the records. In just the last week, she persuaded the secretaries of state in Colorado and Arizona to break links to certain commercial documents and tax liens on their sites that contained personal information. Sometimes her efforts don't work -- as in the case of Galvin, who said that online access to the documents is vital for business. Ostergren talked about how a campaign that began with an attempt to keep her own records offline in Hanover County, Va., has grown into a nationwide mission.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

What is the status in Virginia today? How many counties are still making unredacted public records available online? As of today in Virginia, we have 59 circuit court clerks who have certified to the state compensation board that they have online remote access to these records. There are 62, however, who are not -- and my county is one of them. Those records that they have online in this state are deeds, mortgages, estate details, list of heirs of a deceased person, final divorce decrees with children's names, tax liens, power of attorney, name change documents and others. A lot of these records have Social Security numbers on them.

Are there many counties around the country doing this? Yes there are. It's stupid, it's reckless and it's dangerous. You got people who are cops, FBI agents, Secret Service, the CIA, judges, doctors, abused single women, elderly women -- and here you are putting all their information right out there on the Internet, just because they're public records. Here's a thought: If somebody wants to see a public record, why don't they get in their car and drive down to the courthouse or the secretary of state's office? Don't be spoon-feeding criminals with stuff on the Internet.