Court alters its Web site after online identity theft

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 3:37 AM

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Police are accusing at least two people of stealing a woman's identity by getting public information from the Franklin County Municipal Court Web site.
Court Clerk Lori Tyack immediately limited access to the site yesterday, after the situation came to light during the Worthington police investigation.
The scam was uncovered after Meghan L. Hadden's bank reported possible fraudulent activity on her credit card.
Hadden's name, address, date of birth and Social Security number were used after the two people, a man and a woman, randomly plugged Social Security numbers into the Courtview2000 search page on the Municipal Court Web site and hit on Hadden's Social Security number, said Worthington Police Lt. Doug Francis. He said the female suspect in the case detailed for police how they did it.
The Municipal Court site, which has permitted public searches of court records since 2001, has now been changed to allow searches only by name, Tyack said.
Tyack decided yesterday to discontinue a feature that allowed the Social Security number search, often used by corporate human-resource departments, and searches by driver's license numbers, used by law enforcement.
For the rest of the story Click Here