NEVADA COMPUTER CONTAINING IMPORTANT DATA STOLEN FROM DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES OFFICE Las Vegas SUN: Personal information taken in Nevada DMV office break-in

March 11, 2005
Personal information taken in Nevada DMV office break-in

By KEN RITTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS


NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) - Personal information from more than 8,900 people was stolen when thieves broke into a Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles office, officials said Friday.

A computer taken during the break-in contained names, ages, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, photographs and signatures of southern Nevada residents who obtained driver's licenses between Nov. 25 and March 4 at the North Las Vegas office, state DMV chief Ginny Lewis said.

"The state is extremely sorry that this has happened," Lewis said. "Those motorists whose data was on that computer need to know their personal information has been compromised."

The DMV had previously maintained that the information on the computer stolen in Monday's break-in was encrypted, making it virtually useless to thieves.

But Lewis said Friday that Digimarc Corp., the Beaverton, Ore.,-based company that provides digital driver's licenses in Nevada, told her Thursday the information was not encrypted, and was readily accessible.

Miz Nakajima, Digimarc spokeswoman, said Friday she could not comment on specifics about state DMV customers or the Nevada theft. The publicly traded company provides a service Nakajima called "digital watermarking" to motor vehicle departments in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

All 21 Nevada DMV licensing stations around the state were ordered by the end of the day Friday to remove personal information from computers to prevent a recurrence, Lewis said.

The Nevada DMV planned to send certified letters by next week informing the 8,900 drivers who obtained licenses at the Donovan Way office in North Las Vegas that their personal information was in the hands of thieves.

The licenses of each motorist will be canceled and a new license will be issued with new identification numbers, Lewis said during a news conference outside the office at the end of a remote industrial road wedged between Interstate 15 and the Union Pacific railroad tracks.

Paul Masto, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service office in Las Vegas, said the agency was investigating. He urged those affected to take precautions against identity theft.

"That's the juicy stuff - the dates of birth, the Social Security numbers," Masto said. "They have that information. There's nothing we can do about that."

The Nevada DMV data theft comes after personal information was stolen from a database owned by the information broker LexisNexis and from the giant data broker ChoicePoint Inc. Another data loss affected some 1.2 million federal employees with Bank of America charge cards.

North Las Vegas police were following several leads in the DMV case, department spokesman Officer Tim Bedwell said. He said the initial investigation was hampered by the lack of video surveillance.

Lewis said she was seeking federal and state funds to install cameras at DMV offices throughout Nevada.

Police said thieves smashed a vehicle through a back wall of the office and escaped before police arrived a half-hour later.

In addition to the computer, thieves took a camera, 1,700 license blanks and laminated plastic covers bearing the embossed state seal.

Authorities said the equipment could be used to manufacture licenses virtually indistinguishable from legitimate Nevada driver's licenses.

The state's top homeland security adviser said he notified federal Homeland Security officials about the break-in.

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On the Net:

Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles: http://www.dmvstat.com