There is a
report this morning out of California that hackers broke into the computer system at one of the Cal State campuses and stole social security and other information. Estimates are that the personal information of some 59,000 people may have been obtained. As the campus is one that serves a primarily lower-middle class demographic, one wonders why they would make a desirable target for such an attack. I believe the answer lies in the bad behavior of our banks, and is one more result of the irresponsible manner in which they bestow credit on anyone.
We have already seen the obscene gift to the banking industry from congress to allow further punishing of people who couldn't handle the credit they should never have been granted to begin with. Now we see another consequence for which I suspect no one will ever hold the banks accountable. It is unsurprising that a campus in the Cal State system, which is the off-label brand of California higher education, would have inadequate computer security. Security is hard, and requires top-notch people to make it really work. And the motivation for attacking such a system is high: given the credit that will be made available to even low-income college students, this sort of theft is likely to prove lucrative.
While proponents of the bank's egregious behavior will claim that easier access to credit is smoothing the path out of poverty for lower income people, it is far more likely that it is just laying a trap which will drag down many of those who dare to take the first steps into joining the ranks of America's consumer horde. When the risk of being victimized by identity theft is added into the mix, as seems to have happened in Chico, many of these people are pushed into an even more tenuous position. Even those who responsibly manage their own finances can be dragged down by the lethal combination of immoral identity thieves and amoral financial institutions.