Governor Nikki Haley (R. SC) may have forgotten about her big one year anniversary but State Senator Vincent Sheheen (D. SC) didn't:
http://www.goupstate.com/...
State Sen. Vincent Sheheen's campaign is taking Gov. Nikki Haley to task on the anniversary of her announcement that a massive hacking had exposed South Carolinians' personal information.
The Democratic candidate for governor calls the hacking a horrible and preventable disgrace in a letter his campaign is emailing and posting online Tuesday.
Haley announced on Oct. 26, 2012, that a cyber-thief had stolen taxpayers' unencrypted personal information from the Department of Revenue. It was later revealed that 6.4 million people and businesses had been affected. - Go Upstate, 10/29/13
Here's a little more info provided from an open letter Sheheen sent to the press:
http://www.independentmail.com/...
One year ago, after 16 days of covering up the biggest breach of a state government in history, Nikki Haley finally informed the people of South Carolina that her Department of Revenue had allowed their most personal information to be hacked and they were at great risk for identity theft. One year ago, Nikki Haley announced her decision to award a $12 million no-bid contract to Experian, a company that just months prior had been duped into selling personal data to a Vietnamese identity theft organization resulting in an investigation by the Secret Service.
One year ago, life as we knew it changed for millions of people and our children because the elected leader of our state government and her administration let us down. Yet one year ago today, Nikki Haley stood before the people of the state and said no one should be disciplined for this massive breach of public trust and failure of state government.
It's been a long year since then, full of much worry for families and businesses at risk. It's been a year of changing stories and incomplete facts from the Haley administration, whose approach to this day is still so cloaked in secrecy that the people of South Carolina are not even allowed to read the full report of just what went wrong. But there is hope for the future, because we can change the way South Carolina does business together, with new leadership and real accountability. - Independent Mail, 10/29/13
But Sheheen doesn't stop short of explaining what happened. he points out Haley's refusal to take responsibility for this:
http://www.theitem.com/...
The Democratic candidate for governor called the episode a "horrible and preventable disgrace" in a letter his campaign emailed Tuesday to tens of thousands of South Carolinian voters.
Sheheen noted that Haley said a year ago no one was to blame and nothing could have been done to prevent the theft of unencrypted personal information from the Department of Revenue. It was later disclosed that 6.4 million people and businesses listed on tax returns filed online.
Several weeks later, however, she acknowledged that state officials did not do enough to prevent the theft and announced the resignation of former Revenue Director Jim Etter. She also released the findings of an outside expert, who said two things could have prevented the hacking: the encryption of stored data or requiring more than one password to log into the system remotely.
"One year ago today, Nikki Haley stood before the people of the state and said no one should be disciplined for this massive breach of public trust and failure of state government," read Sheheen's letter, which his campaign also posted online. "It's been a long year since then, full of much worry for families and businesses at risk." - The Item, 10/30/13
Sheehen picked a great time to remind voters about this:
http://chronicle.augusta.com/...
The anniversary allowed Sheheen to hit on an issue that’s already central to his campaign. In January, he introduced a proposed apology from the Legislature to South Carolinians over the government’s failure to protect their information. The legislation went nowhere. Rob Godfrey, then spokesman for Haley’s office, called it a political stunt.
“In his whole political career in Columbia, Vince never once said the word ‘cybersecurity’ until our state was attacked. Now he just keeps repeating the same old tired and false political rants,” said Godfrey, now her campaign spokesman. “The truth is that Gov. Haley has led a massive and unprecedented effort across all aspects of state government to make our cyber systems more secure than ever and to protect our people from harm.”
Sheheen also criticized Haley’s decision to award credit bureau Experian a no-bid contract to provide credit monitoring to taxpayers who signed up – a $12 million deal that represented the single largest payment of more than $25 million the state spent last fiscal year to clean up the debacle.
Sheheen touted his work in helping create an Identity Theft Reimbursement Fund in the state budget. The largely symbolic program calls for the state to reimburse expenses that an identity theft victim incurs because of a state breach. Someone seeking money would have to apply to the state treasurer’s office.
As of Tuesday, no one had, according to Treasurer Curtis Loftis’ office.
It’s unknown if anyone’s identity has been stolen because of the hacking. A Federal Trade Commission attorney has said the selling and trading of stolen information makes it virtually impossible to trace an identity theft case to any particular security breach.
Legislators critical of the deal pushed for more extensive services and set aside money in the 2013-14 budget for a second year of state-paid monitoring awarded through a bidding process. CSIdentity Corp. recently won that contract for $8.5 million. Experian declined to participate. - The Augusta Chronicle, 10/29/13
Here's Haley's response:
http://www.thestate.com/...
The Haley campaign pushed back against Sheheen’s letter Tuesday, reminding voters that Sheheen endorsed expanding the state’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. Haley hopes to capitalize on the law’s troubled rollout, marred by technology glitches and news that some people could lose their current insurance coverage.
“With Obamacare unraveling before everyone’s eyes and hurting thousands of our citizens, it’s no surprise that South Carolina’s biggest Obamacare cheerleader, Vince Sheheen, is desperate to change the subject,” said Rob Godfrey, Haley’s campaign spokesman.
“The truth is that Gov. Haley has lead a massive and unprecedented effort across all aspects of state government to make our cyber systems more secure than ever and to protect our people from harm.” - The State, 10/29/13
Sheheen and South Carolina Democrats are pushing to paint Haley as incompetent (which she is) and different polls show the race is tights. Lets beat another Republican Governor on their own turf next year. Click here if you want to donate or get involved with Sheheen's campaign:
http://vincentsheheen.com/