Daily Press News Editor
DENVER — Online access to certain records on the Colorado Secretary of State Web site was suspended late last week, after some of the images were found to contain Social Security numbers.
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The problem was discovered after the secretary’s office received an anonymous complaint March 28, spokesman Jonathan Tee said. “She talked about the UCC and social security numbers. That was all we needed to hear.”
Secretary of State Mike Coffman was in Routt County at the time and was briefed upon his return March 29.
“He was not pleased,” Tee said, explaining the sensitive information was removed from the Web site within an hour of the briefing. “He moved as quickly as he heard about it. We’re going to tackle this aggressively.”
In a news release, Coffman said citizens and public officials alike are vulnerable to identity theft. “It is in everyone’s best interest that we do a better job of protecting the personal information we collect,” Coffman said.
An initial investigation found some financial institutions were filing UCC information using outdated forms, which required Social Security numbers.
In 2001, the Secretary of State requested funding to remove personal data from scanned filings and received the money in legislation enacted in 2002. By 2003, the office had redacted SSNs from filings received prior to July 1, 2001. The office was also permitted to create a new UCC form, one that does not require social security numbers.
But some financial institutions were using old forms, Tee said.
It was not immediately known how many UCC filings were done with the incorrect form.
“That’s one of the things we’re going to be looking at. It’s a six-, seven-year-old form. We’re still trying to grapple with the scope of this. We don’t think it’s a lot.”
Coffman suspended the ability to view scanned images of UCC paper filings and began a process to review each filing received to ensure the SSNs are removed prior to being posted. His office was also reportedly in the process of notifying financial institutions to stop using old forms.
“The problem is, we don’t know who these institutions are. It really is an education process...to make sure these old forms are not used,” Tee said.
Tee estimated 320,000 records would need to be examined to make sure they did not contain sensitive information. The cost of such an undertaking was not immediately known.
“We went through this in 2001,” Tee said, referring to UCC forms. “We’re satisfied we’d addressed the issue, but some institutions are using this old filing. We’re looking at internal procedures to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Tee said that earlier in the year, images of a “handful” of driver’s licenses appeared briefly online as part of Coffman’s report on Montrose County’s election troubles. The images were redacted within 12 hours of the report’s publication, he said, and did not include anyone’s Social Security number.
“We sent letters to individuals in Montrose County whose information was on that document,” Tee said. In all, the secretary’s office mailed about 15 such letters after consulting the Colorado Attorney General, he added.
Tee was not certain whether it was possible to know if any of the Social Security numbers contained in the UCC filings had been misused. “Right now, the focus is obviously on removing those images. Now we’re moving forward.”
He said that letters of notification would be mailed to people whose numbers were posted, once they are identified. “But right now, we need to find out what we’re looking at here; how many Social Security numbers were on the Web site.”
The UCC filings are public information and need to be publicly available, Tee said. “There is a balance that needs to be struck between information this office provides to the public and protecting private information.”
He did not know when it would again be possible to view scanned images of UCC filings.
“We’re going to try to do this as quickly as we can. But the priority here is to make sure the personal, identifying information is removed,” Tee said.
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