Letters: SC Revenue Department still compromising sensitive data

Some news outlets have credited former Revenue Director Rick Reames with restoring the reputation of the Revenue Department following the 2012 hacking scandal that compromised our tax return data, made national headlines and has cost tens of millions of dollars to upgrade computer security and provide taxpayers with credit monitoring services.

But we are now learning of an even more egregious release of protected data on Mr. Reames’ watch. Last year, the agency exposed the names and medical and financial information of 2,070 K-12 children with “special needs,” in what looks like a major violation of federal privacy laws. This data release can place a permanent sigma, a Scarlet Letter if you will, on our children that no amount of credit monitoring can ever correct.

Mr. Reames has trampled on the rights of our most vulnerable South Carolinians and taken the reputation of the agency and South Carolina from bad to worse.

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Letters: SC Revenue Department still compromising sensitive data."