IP: Slack goes when California DMV gains access to SSA database: [risks] Risks Digest 21.36 [look at end djf]

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 16:25:02 -0400
>From: eweise <eweise@usatoday.com>
>Subject: Slack goes when California DMV gains access to SSA database
>
>Apparently the California DMV gained access to the computerized database of
>the Social Security Administration at the beginning of the year.  Sometime
>in February or March the DMV began bouncing back all requests to renew
>drivers licenses in which the name given did not exactly match the name in
>the SSA computers.
>
>I learned of this the day my license expired when I attempted to renew it
>and was told that because my Social Security number was issued under the
>name Beth back in the 1960s, according to the DMV I was attempting to
>defraud the government "and possibly engaged in identity theft" by
>attempting to get a drivers license under the name Elizabeth Weise--despite
>the fact that the State of California has accorded me a drivers license
>under that name for eight years now.
>
>A call to the Social Security Administration confirmed that since the DMV
>was given the ability to hook directly into the SSA's computers, they've
>been flooded with Robert-Bob's, Richard-Dicks's and Alex-Alexander's who
>are all being told they can't renew their licenses until they officially
>change their names. For the record, the clerk at the SSA told me "We
>understand that Beth and Elizabeth are the same person and it doesn't
>bother us, but the DMV won't let it by any more." To fix this one must
>personally go to an SSA office and have them change their official record.
>         The identification they require?
>         A California drivers license.
>
>Elizabeth Weise, Technology Reporter, USA Today Life Section
>2912 Diamond St. #407, San Francisco CA 94131 415/452-8741 eweise@usatoday.com



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