Texas exposes addresses, SSNs of 3.5 million residents (including Texas Workforce Commission Data)

Following last week's massive Epsilon e-mail breach, it feels as if all of us suddenly have a little too much personal information floating around online. And now, a large group of Texans are about to have it a lot worse: the state revealed Monday that personal information for 3.5 million citizens has been exposed to the public, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and more.

According to Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs, the data wasn't exposed by a hacker or a group of vigilante scriptkiddies—it ended up on a state-controlled public server after having been passed around between various state agencies. The data came from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Employees Retirement System of Texas, all of whom transferred the unencrypted data (against state policy) between January and May of 2010. The information was only discovered on the public server on March 31, 2011, meaning it has been available for almost a year.....

More.... http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2011/04/texas-exposes-addresses-ssns-of-35-million-residents.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Is anyone else reading the same thing into this that I am...? A shot across the bow at teachers in Texas? I don't think they have collective bargaining in that state...it's Texas, after all. But if the teachers there were thinking about it, this might make them think again. Or am I just too cynical?

Oh, the Texas Workforce Comission. I get it. But it could have been a twofer.