Lack Of Thinking In Some Homeland Security Issues

Security Cameras All Over UNR -- None Protecting DMV Records

by Johnny Gunn

Dichotomy is about the best way of trying to understand why placing 80 video cameras around the campus at UNR and saying they are there for of Homeland Security purposes, and placing no cameras around a DMV office that holds vulnerable personal records of almost 9,000 Nevadans isn't.

This is almost like frisking the passengers as they leave their flight, not before they board the plane. There is an implied trust when you give your very personal information to a government agency. A trust that they will protect that information. Terrorists on the campus of UNR could inflict much pain and death; terrorists with personal information on almost 9,000 residents of the Las Vegas Valley could inflict untold damage on a worldwide scale.

Regarding the question of why there should be 80 cameras on a university aside, the larger question is why DMV was so cavalier in their handling of such delicate information as individual's Social Security numbers, even digital photos and digital signatures.

The Department of Motor Vehicles is responsible for extremely sensitive personal information on more than one million Nevadans, and it appears they don't take that responsibility very seriously. There were no security systems in use at the DMV facility that was broken into. No cameras, no security personnel.

The criminals drove a truck through a window wall into a break room, according police, and it was almost half an hour before the first police arrived at the crime scene, the perpetrators long gone. The Secret Service is so concerned, they have joined the investigation. The director of the DMV simply said something to the effect, I'm sorry.

From the point of view of what could be done with the information that was stolen, novelists could write for ten years or more. Would it not be prudent to have cameras protecting such sensitive material? Would it not be prudent to have an armed guard or two protecting such sensitive material?

There is of course another question that must be answered. Why were those personal records on an unencrypted computer hard disk in the first place? Encryption programs are available, and I'm positive the Homeland Security people would want that kind of personal information kept out of the hands of international criminals and terrorists.

The cameras at UNR are probably not going to save a single life. How many lives are going to be disrupted, how many people could end up dead, how much federal disruption might take place because of this lack of security at DMV?

I hope this problem ends up being scrutinized by high level federal and state agencies. This act of terrorism is not a simple break in. Investigators agree that this was a well planned heist, that those involved knew what they were after and how to get it. And the complete lack of understanding of that by the DMV officials needs to be investigated.

Another part of the investigation might involve the possibility of someone on the inside either leading or contributing to the theft. North Las Vegas police, federal investigators, and other interested parties have all commented that whoever is responsible for the crime seemed to know exactly where to go, what to get.

If we're going to discuss Homeland Security, then let's make sure we're talking about something that seriously needs that level of security. Eighty cameras on UNR will probably make some of the students late at night feel a little more comfortable. No cameras protecting the most vital personal information that a state agency might have is criminal.