Press Release - Excerpts from The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Identity Theft

09/15/2006

Cedar Rapids Gazette

Excerpts from The Cedar Rapids Gazette
Friday, September 15, 2006

"?Nussle battered Culver for sponsoring a taxpayer- funded conference on combating identity theft after he ''ignored Iowan's privacy rights by making available on his secretary of state Web site the personal identities, including Social Security numbers, of thousands of Iowans - even after being warned repeatedly by government watchdogs of public susceptibility to identity thieves?''

?Nussle suggested it was all too clear what Culver was up to by holding the first Iowa Notary Conference, which will focus on combating fraud and identity theft.

''Chet Culver has no credibility when it comes to protecting the personal identities of Iowans, much less trying to teach folks how to guard against such thefts,'' Nussle said. ''For Culver to be the one to give advice on preventing against identity theft really takes the cake.''

Nussle referred to the fact that Culver waited nearly seven months to take action after being warned twice in early 2005 by the Iowa Citizens' Aide Ombudsman that the secretary of state's Web site posed a risk of identity theft because Iowans' Social Security numbers and other personal data were unprotected.

''Frankly, this is yet another example of Culver trying to mask the mismanagement, misjudgment and lack of leadership in the Secretary of State's Office during his watch,'' he said.

He called the first notary conference ''a questionable use of taxpayer dollars,'' especially coming just two months before the election and after Culver being in office for nearly eight years."

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