California DMV Credit Card Data Attacked

It had to happen. You secure government data is secure no more. Please say it ain't so. Although officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles are denying that any information was stolen from their servers, they admit that their is an investigation ongoing into a possible breach somewhere. California not only accepts credit cards/debit cards at it's office location, but also online and at some self service kiosks. Reports indicate that it was law enforcement agencies that alerted the DMV as opposed to internal sources. The blog Krebs on Security was apparently the 1st one to publicly report the breach by citing sources in the financial industry. Early in the investigation, the DMV has not released any information on the numbers of possible victims or when the issues may have happened. External sources has reported that it may have happened between August 2 (2013) to January 31 (2014). The stolen information have included card numbers, expiration dates and PIN numbers. While denying that the internal servers at the DMV were breached, a spokesperson for the department did confirm that information was requested from the company that handles the transactions on contract for the DMV and the credit card companies themselves. California, the most populous state in the USA, has already been identified as a key target for cyber criminals including financial fraud and or identity theft. Both at the government level and the private business levels, the opportunities for committing crime are enormous. Government agencies, such as the DMV or taxing authorities hold vast amounts of customer lists. Of course, with leading technology companies based with in the state, cracking even a small percentage of the data bases available could provide a worldwide list of possible victims. If anyone thinks that the California DMV will be the biggest or last breach of government data, they have no clue of the efforts cyber crooks will go to access your information. And while the media and the government are quick to point out the slow pace at which big business moves at making decisions about upgraded technology, businesses generally move at the speed of light compared to the movement of government to fund improvements to their own internal systems.