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Doyle plans new ways to keep information secure
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by Richie Rathsack
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday a plan to increase the protection of residents’ personal information stored by government agencies.
The state will implement recommendations in a report from the Milwaukee-based financial services and privacy protection firm Metavante Corp.
Doyle’s recommendations are to replace Social Security numbers with random ID numbers wherever possible, appointing a privacy officer to each government agency, conducting an annual risk assessment of each agency and developing standardized vendor contract language.
“As Metavante recognizes in its report, state agencies already have some strong policies and practices in place for protecting sensitive information,” Doyle wrote in a letter to Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Michael Morgan.
Last January, Doyle asked Metavante to look into how the state can improve its handling of sensitive information following a mailing that went out by a Texas vendor hired by the Department of Health and Family Services. The mailing had Social Security numbers of the recipients on the address labels.
DOA Media Relations spokesperson Linda Barth thinks the governor has put forth a good plan for state agencies to follow.
“The governor has made it clear that he wants citizens to be sure their data is protected and that it is a priority with all state agencies,” Barth said.
Barth said Metavante did well coming in and reviewing a complex situation.
“We think they did an excellent job, and we really appreciate their insight,” Barth said.
The creation of privacy officers will help the agencies establish which ones use sensitive data like Social Security numbers for identification and develop policies for how to deal with the handling of such data.
“A lot of agencies are required by federal or state law to use them, but wherever possible we will try to use randomly selected ID numbers,” Barth said.
The privacy officers will meet to advise Morgan on implementation of the Metavante recommendations. They will also establish standards for all the agencies to operate consistently.
The contracts for vendors hired by agencies will also be changed to avoid leaking of private data like in January.
“There is going to be very strong language in all contracts with all vendors to make sure that Social Security numbers are protected,” Barth said.
Metavante commended some of the actions already being implemented by the state such as the consolidation of the IT server to a central server. This allows for greater control over the storage of sensitive information.
Also on the report is the recommendation to create a training program for all state employees about their responsibilities to protect the information of residents.
A statement from the DOA said Metavante worked on a pro bono basis to come up with their recommendations.
There is no set timeline yet for when the recommendations will be implemented.
“We’re going to be working with other agencies to establish a timeline and determine how many resources this will take to implement,” Barth said.
Metavante conducted the research by comparing the state’s practices with other practices in the financial industry. They reviewed state policy, conducted interviews with personnel from seven state agencies and conducted site visits to observe the practices in place at the agencies.
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