WA, OR, & ID hunting/fishing license data breach

[PiratePast40]

Just got a letter informing me that my personal information including DoB, address, DL #, name, address, & personal description may have been hacked from a hunting and fishing license application data base. Do a google search for "hunting and fishing license data breach" and you'll come up with quite a bit of information.

Don't you just love how our government delegates tasks to dodge responsibility? Not that it matters. Kitz and his GF along with Hillery aren't facing any significant consequences from their lack of acting responsibly when trusted by their lowly subjects.

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[Joe13]

Y'all have a personal description attached to your licenses???

That's insane.

 

[PiratePast40]

Y'all have a personal description attached to your licenses???

That's insane.

It's from your DL information.

 

[Joe13]

Ahh gotcha!


I was thinking mine might say big sexy man with short beard and tatts.


I am sorry to hear about the letter . That would weird me out a little. It I don't have any credit cards or anything else to steal.

 

[billdeserthills]

Ahh gotcha!


I was thinking mine might say big sexy man with short beard and tatts.


I am sorry to hear about the letter . That would weird me out a little. It I don't have any credit cards or anything else to steal.

If you go to one of the three credit reporting agencies, you can put a 'freeze' on your credit, which will cause a 24 hour delay for anyone trying to access your info--That alone is enough to make credit thieves leave you alone

 

[U8395279]

Just got a letter informing me that my personal information including DoB, address, DL #, name, address, & personal description may have been hacked from a hunting and fishing license application data base. Do a google search for "hunting and fishing license data breach" and you'll come up with quite a bit of information.

Don't you just love how our government delegates tasks to dodge responsibility? Not that it matters. Kitz and his GF along with Hillery aren't facing any significant consequences from their lack of acting responsibly when trusted by their lowly subjects.

This only affected some hunters and fishermen, and not everyone.

In Oregon, those who set up their online profiles and bought licenses from the ODFW website since Sept 2007 are not affected. Likewise, if you purchased your license from a vendor like Bi-Mart or Cabelas, or at an ODFW office, you would also not be affected. You had to get a license direct from the ODFW website, before Sept 2007, in order to be affected. ODFW says that roughly 20% of the people who buy hunting and fishing licenses get them online from their website.

No credit card information was compromised.

Here is a link to some more info:

Company promises credit services after data hack of millions of hunting, fishing licenses

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[whitney]

This should be taken very seriously by all who received the letter.
I have been the victim of identity theft and I assure you it is not a pretty picture. I was overseas when it happened which made the situation even more difficult. Bill collectors were calling me at all times of the day and night demanding money that I did not owe. The bill collectors do not care, they just want the money. It took me about 2 years to finally get all of the documentation to repair my name and credit. This happened about 16 years ago and even today there is an alias associate with my name that is found when applying for credit. Try to buy a house and sell that story. !!!

Despite all the efforts to straighten out my credit reports and freeze my credit, this ID theft pops up about every 3 or 4 years and I have to prove once again I am not the person in question. I was told by one of the credit reporting agencies it might be because of the algorithms used to collect report data resulting in a "reset" of information every once in a while. I'm not buying that answer though.

After receiving my letter, I spent some time on the phone with Active Outdoors and All Clear to see if I could discover exactly what information they have collected on me. No one can/will tell me anything other than what is in the letter.

Am I to believe there is a data base more than 20 years old that retains annual information collected from each license purchase? If such a database does exist does it contain 20 years of personally identifiable information? Why isn't it purged every 3 or 4 years? Forgive me for not trusting an agency who cannot / won't tell me what information they have stored on me for the last 20 years or so.

If I lived in WA, OR, or ID within the last 20 years and now I live in another state does this system retain my personally identifiable information?

For those who Poo Poo my story or make light of the letter I truly hope you never experience what I had to go through. While I acknowledge all online transactions have risk associated with them this breech is potentially damaging even after the two years free credit monitoring service expires.

My spouse also received a letter and one thing I am still scratching my head on....... the last time my spouse bought a license was 1992 for shellfish/crabbing. Back when we used to have to safety pin the blue card to our shirts or hat. Why is that information still in the system?

~Whitney

 

[Joe13]

This should be taken very seriously by all who received the letter.
I have been the victim of identity theft and I assure you it is not a pretty picture. I was overseas when it happened which made the situation even more difficult. Bill collectors were calling me at all times of the day and night demanding money that I did not owe. The bill collectors do not care, they just want the money. It took me about 2 years to finally get all of the documentation to repair my name and credit. This happened about 16 years ago and even today there is an alias associate with my name that is found when applying for credit. Try to buy a house and sell that story. !!!

Despite all the efforts to straighten out my credit reports and freeze my credit, this ID theft pops up about every 3 or 4 years and I have to prove once again I am not the person in question. I was told by one of the credit reporting agencies it might be because of the algorithms used to collect report data resulting in a "reset" of information every once in a while. I'm not buying that answer though.

After receiving my letter, I spent some time on the phone with Active Outdoors and All Clear to see if I could discover exactly what information they have collected on me. No one can/will tell me anything other than what is in the letter.

Am I to believe there is a data base more than 20 years old that retains annual information collected from each license purchase? If such a database does exist does it contain 20 years of personally identifiable information? Why isn't it purged every 3 or 4 years? Forgive me for not trusting an agency who cannot / won't tell me what information they have stored on me for the last 20 years or so.

If I lived in WA, OR, or ID within the last 20 years and now I live in another state does this system retain my personally identifiable information?

For those who Poo Poo my story or make light of the letter I truly hope you never experience what I had to go through. While I acknowledge all online transactions have risk associated with them this breech is potentially damaging even after the two years free credit monitoring service expires.

My spouse also received a letter and one thing I am still scratching my head on....... the last time my spouse bought a license was 1992 for shellfish/crabbing. Back when we used to have to safety pin the blue card to our shirts or hat. Why is that information still in the system?

~Whitney

They are watching us and have a list even if they say they don't.

I think this in incident has proven that...

 

[whitney]

I wanted to come back to this thread today to share an email I sent regarding this data breach. I hope my frustration with this situation comes through especially for those of you who may not have been victims of ID theft (yet). !! Yes it is a bit of rant;....walk a mile in the other shoes and you might rant a bit too. It is my hope it will encourage others to take similar action.
~Whitney
>>>>>>>>>>>

To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Active Outdoors Data Breach
I am trying to find someone who will talk to me about my personally identifiable information contained in your data base.
The credit repair company noted in your letter will not tell me anything other than what is in the letter. You letter is ambiguous at best. My personally identifiable information may have been subject to unauthorized access.
This suggests in fact you do not know if my information was taken or not. I feel your form letter apology is patronizing to all those affected by this data breech. Your letter is not even signed or even stamped with a signature.
UNACCEPTABLE. !!!!

Why won't someone at Active Outdoors or All Clear talk to me about this?
I already have an identity theft problem I am dealing with, and now it may (or may not) be exacerbated by yet another database breach.
I am absolutely Livid about this and want some answers, not the run around playing phone tag.

Someone, may (or may not) have enough information about me to effectively impersonate me. This breach has the potential to cause grave damage to everyone affected beyond the two year time line afforded. All you can do is offer a form letter apology, sign me up for two years credit repair and move on? I already have an alias fraudulently associated with my name due to identity theft so please forgive me if I don't sound trusting of your solution; I am not, particularly since the offer expires in two years and the clock started ticking down before I received the letter.

I want to receive a copy of all of the information collected on me as part of this licensing system so I may take action on my own.
I reject your offer to repair my good name and credit should it become necessary.

If there is an specific procedure to request the aforementioned information please advise. If I have to sue to get it please advise.

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Whitney Slater
Poulsbo WA. 98370

 

[WAYNO]

I wanted to come back to this thread today to share an email I sent regarding this data breach. I hope my frustration with this situation comes through especially for those of you who may not have been victims of ID theft (yet). !! Yes it is a bit of rant;....walk a mile in the other shoes and you might rant a bit too. It is my hope it will encourage others to take similar action.
~Whitney
>>>>>>>>>>>

To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Active Outdoors Data Breach
I am trying to find someone who will talk to me about my personally identifiable information contained in your data base.
The credit repair company noted in your letter will not tell me anything other than what is in the letter. You letter is ambiguous at best. My personally identifiable information may have been subject to unauthorized access.
This suggests in fact you do not know if my information was taken or not. I feel your form letter apology is patronizing to all those affected by this data breech. Your letter is not even signed or even stamped with a signature.
UNACCEPTABLE. !!!!

Why won't someone at Active Outdoors or All Clear talk to me about this?
I already have an identity theft problem I am dealing with, and now it may (or may not) be exacerbated by yet another database breach.
I am absolutely Livid about this and want some answers, not the run around playing phone tag.

Someone, may (or may not) have enough information about me to effectively impersonate me. This breach has the potential to cause grave damage to everyone affected beyond the two year time line afforded. All you can do is offer a form letter apology, sign me up for two years credit repair and move on? I already have an alias fraudulently associated with my name due to identity theft so please forgive me if I don't sound trusting of your solution; I am not, particularly since the offer expires in two years and the clock started ticking down before I received the letter.

I want to receive a copy of all of the information collected on me as part of this licensing system so I may take action on my own.
I reject your offer to repair my good name and credit should it become necessary.

If there is an specific procedure to request the aforementioned information please advise. If I have to sue to get it please advise.

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Whitney Slater
Poulsbo WA. 98370

Thank you. Too many folks don't take this stuff seriously, my own kids included. They think of it as a fact of modern life, and I shouldn't worry. That also leads me to fear the millennials will do little to prevent this sort of thing, since they don't consider it a danger.

WAYNO.

 

[U8395279]

This should be taken very seriously by all who received the letter.

.......

For those who Poo Poo my story or make light of the letter

No one here has made light of the letter. I only noted that this data breech does not affect most hunters and fishermen who live in Oregon, and I simply clarified who is specifically affected.

Those who receive this letter obviously have good reason to be concerned. Fortunately, I have not received it myself. I always bought my licenses from BiMart or Cabela's.

.

 

[whitney]

No one here has made light of the letter. I only noted that this data breech does not affect most hunters and fishermen who live in Oregon, and I simply clarified who is specifically affected.

Those who receive this letter obviously have good reason to be concerned. Fortunately, I have not received it myself. I always bought my licenses from BiMart or Cabela's.

.

My apologies if it appeared or came across as chastising you Lance. That was absolutely not my intention. I was just posting to the next block in the thread.
~Whitney

 

[Joe13]

My apologies if it appeared or came across as chastising you Lance. That was absolutely not my intention. I was just posting to the next block in the thread.
~Whitney

I thought the letter was good.



Makes some threads funny when people are on my ignore list.

Sometimes confusing so I hit that show ignored content... and am still happy things are the way they are.

 

[whitney]

I received a message on my answering machine today from Diane LaBrozee (sp?) a senior manager of Active Outdoors. She is eager to answer my questions but asked that I call back Monday as she was leaving the office soon and is on the east coast.

I thought it odd the phone number she left was a Sarratoga Springs New York number; the letter I received was a addressed from Austin Texas. I did a quick business entity search at the New York Secretary of State website and lo and behold there they are located in Deer Park New York.
https://appext20.dos.ny.gov/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.SELECT_ENTITY

I will call Diane back Monday and report back here the result of my phone conversation. I believe my request is pretty simple and appears to be congruent with their privacy policy.

~Whitney

 

[whitney]

**UPDATE **
Today I called Diane Labrosse regarding the message she left on my answering machine. I had to jog her memory a bit to recall the message. She was not able to provide the assistance I requested as the information would have to be collected from the IT department. I got the sense she wanted to get me off the phone, or perhaps it was a bad time (east coast lunch time) for her. She promised to call me back with the information at the number I called from; I asked her to call my home number and leave the information on my answering machine as I was calling from my work phone number. (caller ID no doubt).

I placed a second call to the WDFW at the number they list on their website. I had a nice discussion about the data base and the way it has been maintained. Because the WDFW website and the letter I received state online sales are suspended while license vendors and phone licensing were operational I asked how they differed with regard to personal information collection. What I discovered did not surprise me but may come as a surprise to some. Notwithstanding the location or method of license purchase the "database" is populated with your information. So......you may have bought your license at the local sporting goods store but your information is in the same database as online sales. !!! There is only ONE database.

While on the line with the WDFW representative I asked if there was a way to purge or remove my data from the data base, and why do they keep the information so long. No clear answers with the exception of the need to keep track of "points" you may have accumulated for special hunts and the like. I should note he was very receptive and understanding of my concern. He also said to watch the link on the WDFW page as it was being actively updated.

I did suggest an option in the future for folks to opt out or otherwise remove their personal data from the WDFW system and gave a couple examples of folks who may like this option. Specifically military personnel who live here two to four years then move on to a new duty station. Now if you resemble that remark and bought a license during the affected time your information is, or is potentially at risk of abuse through no fault of your own. How does the WDFW or Active Outdoors find these folks considering the address on file would be long since vacated in several instances. This is not limited to military folks by any stretch but is a good example.

Long story short I still don't know "what they have on me" but am prosecuting to the end.

Moral of the story, squeaky wheel gets the oil and the more folks who speak out the quicker change will take affect.

~Whitney