It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Macy's Parade Confetti; Guess What It Was? Confidential Information

page: 1
11

log in

join
share:

posted on Nov, 26 2012 @ 11:23 PM
link   
This is ridiculous.




Confidential personal information is what some paradegoers found among confetti tossed during the world's most famous parade. That information included social security numbers and banking information for police employees, some of whom are undercover officers.


Ethan Finkelstein, who was home from college on Thanksgiving break, was watching the parade at 65th Street and Central Park West, when he and a friend noticed a strip of confetti stuck onto her coat. "It landed on her shoulder," Finkelstein told PIX11 News, "and it says 'SSN' and it's written like a social security number, and we're like, 'That's really bizarre.'

It made the Tufts University freshman concerned, so he and his friends picked up more of the confetti that had fallen around them. "There are phone numbers, addresses, more social security numbers, license plate numbers and then we find all these incident reports from police." One confetti strip indicates that it's from an arrest record, and other strips offer more detail.

"This is really shocking," Finkelstein said. "It says, 'At 4:30 A.M. a pipe bomb was thrown at a house in the Kings Grant' area." A closer look shows that the documents are from the Nassau County Police Department. The papers were shredded, but clearly not well enough. They even contain information about Mitt Romney's motorcade, apparently from the final presidential debate, which took place at Hofstra University in Nassau County last month.

Most significant, the confetti strips identified Nassau County detectives by name. Some of them are apparently undercover. Their social security numbers, dates of birth and other highly sensitive personal information was also printed on the confetti strips.


link

I just don't see how something like this happens. Exactly who thought using confidential information from a police department for parade confetti was a good idea? How did people involved with the parade even get these documents in the first place? What is the protocol for dealing with sensitive and confidential documents once shredded from law enforcements point of view?

There really is incompetence everywhere we look nowadays.
edit on 26-11-2012 by MysticPearl because: (no reason given)



posted on Nov, 26 2012 @ 11:54 PM
link   
Well we all asked for transparency...


But this is the wrong way to do it



posted on Nov, 26 2012 @ 11:55 PM
link   
Nassau County POLICE EMPLOYEE Brought Classified Confetti to Thanksgiving Parade

"PIX11 News has learned that the classified confetti came from a police employee who had attended the parade as a spectator."

Wow...



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 12:00 AM
link   
A little information on where that confetti may have came from:


NEW YORK (PIX11)— Three days after breaking the story on highly classified police documents ending up as confetti in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, PIX11 News has learned that the classified confetti came from a police employee who had attended the parade as a spectator. Sources close to the investigation into the incident told PIX11 News that an employee of the Nassau County Police Department was watching the parade near 65th Street and Central Park West, along the parade route. He had brought shredded NCPD documents with him for his family and friends to use as confetti, and use them they did.


Source



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 12:13 AM
link   
Me thinks there is yet another unemployed person in the USA.



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 12:22 AM
link   
I believe the employee and those who reported this story did the police department and others in government who care about security a favor. They made it obvious that sensitive documents are not getting properly shredded or destroyed. Others could be obtaining information due to improper shredding equipment or employees not following procedures. I always cross cut whatever I shred. There are better shredders that cut the paper up into tiny pieces.

I would rather my information be used in confetti rather than available online thanks to slack security at the SC department of revenue that allowed an international hacker to steal our information in SC. I could imagine that millions of stolen social security numbers could be a threat to national security if a lot of illegal people used them to enter the country or impersonate in large numbers. There is a massive identity theft problem in this country due to slack security in some locations. It frustrates me when I'm careful and then our government lets us down. I see incompetence is everywhere or a perception that security is not checked very well across the board wherever sensitive information is stored. What would be worse are all the cases where no one knows the information was stolen. I believe some hackers take pride in not leaving any clues they broke in.

Then it's up to the individual to spend a ton of personal time trying to restore their credit or deny false charges due to others incompetence. If it's not already a law, people convicted of stealing identities should have to pay for the victims time and money lost with penalties with the money going to the victims. In some cases, such as undercover people getting hurt or killed, even money wouldn't be fair justice.
edit on 27/11/12 by orionthehunter because: (no reason given)



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 12:55 AM
link   
A few years ago I worked for a major insurance company. The company developed a plan to go paperless. I was one of the employees selected to participate in the pilot program. One of the first projects was to scan the existing insurance policies and then shred the documents after a digital record was verified.

The company was required by law to store the hard copies for a certain period of time. If I remember correctly we stored them for 90 days and then they were shreded. The thing is they stored the policies in the parking garage. Anybody had access to all of that information. Everytime I took a load of boxes to the parking garage I half expected a news crew from a local tv channel to be waiting.

At different times there were hundreds of boxes thousands of insurance policies just sitting in the open for anyone to look through. No guard no security just file boxes sitting on pallets.

I'm pretty sure it was illegal it's just amazing what little respect there is for a persons private information.



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 01:04 AM
link   
I must agree that the person who brought the confetti should be joining the unemployment line. How could anyone in there right mind not see that information was still legible? Maybe they didn't care and wanted it to be shared with millions of people. I'm beginning to think these types are people are psycho. Who in their right mind would do such a thing?

I'm from SC and I know we were screwed by our Dept of Revenue. A one year protection of your SS#. Really? You let the whole world know there is a one year protection. Like these people would care about a one year protection on us anyway. What happens after the year is used up and people lose their identities, credit, money, etc??? Just one big joke!

I hope they do more for those police officers than SC did for us!!



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 01:49 PM
link   
Ha. It just goes to show what the corporate world thinks of its peons. To the folks that discovered this startling event, i commend their scrutiny.



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 01:58 PM
link   
A lot of corporations and police actually sub bid out the paper shredding and destruction to companies that do just that. They put everything thats supposed to get shredded into a locked box in the office (looks like a large trash can) a guy shows up on friday from the shredding company takes it away to be shredded and destroyed.

SO its's feasible one of these guys at one of those types of companies did that.

By the Van Nuys courthouse in Los Angeles is a recycling center. About a block from the courthouse. SO one day I go there to toss out a bunch of paper and cardboard. I'm looking into the paper dumpster and all i see are boxes and boxes spilled open with peoples ssn's, tax id #'s, legal contracts. All sorts of stuff. it even said who's ssn numbers they were with their home and business addresses! so this sort of stuff happens all the time. Still shocked though that some idiot would use it for confetti at a parade.



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 04:12 PM
link   
The entire concept of confetti is completely asinine.

There is absolutely nothing positive about it. It's just *snippin* stupid.



posted on Nov, 27 2012 @ 05:19 PM
link   
The only way to really ensure paper documents remain safe is to incinerate them.

You can get "level 3, cross cut, bla bla bla" shredders, but if you have an army of people -- you can piece it back together eventually.

I would imagine most high-level government offices have an incinerator for sensitive documents marked for destruction.




top topics



 
11

log in

join