‘loopholes’ in florida DMV digital security?- michael towner

Statewide elections for less-prominent cabinet positions, such as state chief financial officer, rarely generate the headline buzz that campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate do.
But the Florida chief financial officer (CFO) election between Republican incumbent Jimmy Patronis and Democrat challenger Jeremy Ring is an exception to that rule.
With neither facing primary challenges, both have been zeroing in on each other since January. Among disclosures bantered about as campaign fodder are motor vehicle driving records that indicate both candidates’ driver licenses have been briefly suspended over the last dozen years.
But the “dirt” is no longer the issue.
How the “dirt” got dredged up has become the issue, not only exposing the skullduggery that “opposition research” plays in even relatively obscure elections but, according to Patronis, that there are “loopholes in third-party state vendor agreements that must be addressed.”
The irony is, it is among the CFO’s responsibilities to address those “loopholes” by vetting third-party vendors contracted by the state to ensure they comply with federal and state privacy laws.
In May, “news” circulated that Patronis’ driver license had been suspended for nine months spanning 2011 and 2012. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DMV) requires drivers maintain car insurance. If a policy expires without being renewed or replaced, the license is automatically suspended.
Patronis presented documents confirming he had switched insurance carriers, but his new policy was never logged. The DMV officially declared the suspension an error and removed it from his record.
In response, Patronis’ supporters presented a South Florida Sun-Sentinel article documenting how Ring’s driver license was suspended because of unpaid tolls in 2006.
Ring contended he didn’t realize his SunPass transponder wasn’t working until he tried renting a car and learned his license had been suspended. He paid the fines and his license was restored.
On May 30, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) opened an investigation after being notified by the DMV “that Patronis’ PII (Personally Identifiable Information) had been released to an individual through a third party vendor, Unisoft Communications.”
In mid-June, the DMV terminated its 2017 agreement with Unisoft, which allowed it to gather data for insurance companies and operate the mydrivingreport.com website for three years, because “a problem … made it possible for unauthorized individuals to enter a person’s license number and get their personal information,” which is prohibited by the federal Driver Privacy Protection Act (DPPA).
"By only requiring a driver license number, someone other than themselves could easily obtain DPPA-protected information," the DMV informed Unisoft.
According to the FDLE investigation, among the “someone other than themselves” accessing the personal information of more than 17 million people with Florida driver licenses was Jake Wagman of Shield Political Research, a Democratic “opposition researcher” based in South Bend, Ind.
In the FDLE’s six-page investigative summary, special agent Jeff Foggy determined that on April 18 and 19, Wagman ordered the driver history from mydrivingreport.com for Patronis, former Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor, who is running for Tampa mayor, and Broward attorney Michael Gottlieb, a Democrat facing Republican Joseph Cruz in the District 98 State House seat.
“The forms provided by Unisoft Communications were unredacted and contained the PII,” Foggy wrote.
In June, according to Foggy, Wagman requested driver information on the Republican candidate for Agriculture Commissioner, Roy Walker, and Democrat Agriculture Commissioner candidate Nicole ‘Nikki’ Fried.
Fried is facing Matt Caldwell, who defeated Walker in Tuesday’s primary, in the agriculture commissioner election.
The FDLE’s report identified a payment trail linking Wagman with Eric Johnson, a political consultant working “on several campaigns” in Florida, including Ring’s.
Fried and Castor told Foggy they gave Wagman permission to get their driver license information while Gottlieb, Walker and Patronis said they had not.
“Based on the investigation, Mr. Wagman did in fact possess and use the driver license number of Mr. Gottlieb, Mr. Patronis and Mr. Walker without their consent,” and turned the case over to the Office of Statewide Prosecution (OSP).
The OSP ruled on Aug. 21 “that criminal charges cannot be pursued against Mr. Wagman or Shield Political Research” because “there is no evidence of fraudulent intent” in gathering the information.

​Excerpts taken from Watchdog.org - John Haughey