Night of the Living IT Scare
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Night of the Living IT Scare
It's Halloween here in the US today. Actually I guess it's Halloween everywhere in the world, but I'm not sure how much it's celebrated in other countries. Here it's mostly become an excuse for kids to go out and get candy while adults have yet another excuse to dress up in some silly costume and have a night of partying.
I noticed an interesting story on scary IT situations and thought I'd chime in. I don't have any that occurred on Halloween, but I had a great one on New Year's Eve, involving SQL Server of all products.
We ran a great nightmare contest a few years ago that was a lot of fun and now that I think about it, I'll save my story for Friday and take a poll on yours
So start working on those stories.Instead, I'll comment that most of us have experienced some personal horror stories, but not too many that affect us personally, like the first one. Here a young man was arrested after a job screening because of identity theft. He protested, but spent a week in jail while the the mix-up was straightened out and Choicepoint found the error.
I'd like to blast everyone involved here, and Choicepoint definitely deserves a lot of the blame, but I'm not sure the police and employer didn't act in the best interests of society. Would you call the police if someone you were interviewing appeared as a criminal? A child molester and rapist? That's a tough one. You can't ask the person, and the prudent thing is probably to call.
Data errors are common. More common than we'd like, but most of the time they aren't a big deal, so we don't worry about them. However the problem comes in when they do matter and we take what's on the screen or printed on the paper more seriously than what someone says.
As DBAs, we are often responsible for data in our systems, but we don't take responsibility that someone hasn't mixed up the FKs between tables. Or that our matches on some data load are correct. That's mostly because people, humans that make mistakes even though they posses far better judgement than most computer systems, and those mistakes get lost. I'm not sure who actually needs to be responsible. Choicepoint collects data from other sources, who should be responsible for the accuracy of that data. Choicepoint should be responsible for ensuring that data is correctly loaded and matched on existing information.
But more importantly there should be a way to quickly dig through the sources and verify information. And correct problems. Mistakes will get made and we need to allow for that in our systems.
Steve Jones
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...speaking of accuracy in data, surely that should be ChoicePoint, not CheckPoint?
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C8H10N4O2
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TRUNCATE LOG ON CHOICEPOINT
Ok, sorry, couldn't resist.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
Knightbridge Solution LLC came out a white paper about Top 10 trends of Business Intelligence for 2006. The first one is information quality. Even if you have the best data architect design the best data warehouse and the best developers develop the best ETL programs or the company bought the best ETL software, if the data quality is poor, what you get is garbage.
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Well, I'm not sure this was a tough call at the time. I would expect the authorities to act on a tip. They'd be in huge trouble if they didn't act on the tip and it turned out to be correct. All they can do is work from the data they get. I'm not sure how skeptical they are allowed to be in terms of asking, "Are you SURE this is right?" They have limited time to work with, and may get in nearly as much trouble for delaying as for not acting at all.
But that's what makes the error so terrible. The highest priority should be in checking, double-checking, and triple-checking any data that is going to be used to potentially call in the cops on someone. There should always be a paper copy somewhere signed by a person who can take responsibility for the accuracy of the data. At the extreme end, it is conceivable that a person could panic if confronted by police and could be accidentally killed by gunfire.
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A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html -
Apologies to the SQL Server team for blaming their Checkpoint team
It's been corrected to "Choicepoint".I agree with webrunner, the authorities have to act. Heck, I think if I'm the HR guy, I have to call them. But they need a process and they need to accept the responsibility to double check things.
As "Steve Jones", I get lots of errors with I apply for a loan, get a ticket, etc. because of the commonness of the name. It still stuns me that they ask me about things even when my SSN doesn't match, but I guess they want to be sure they don't get burned. I accept that, I just want them to trace down any red flags quickly and then clear them.
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I wonder if the confusion were over an individual named "Chadwick Worthington III" if he would have spent the week in jail.
It's one thing to have the data falsely flagged in the first place, but there really is no excuse to spend a week verifying the accuracy of the data
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just be glad your name isn't Robert Johnson. You'd have trouble every time you fly.
It is incredible that mismatching social security, physical descriptions, addresses, ages, are completely igonored when a name matches. Security theater. Actually it's even more incredible that the authorities don't even seem to be the least bit embarrassed or apologetic when foolish mismatches occur.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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I think that Baseline article is pretty scary when you think about the implications. Every company is starting to base products and rate they offer you based on previous history. I believe I read in an article that several libraries are submitting late fees from overdue books to peoples credit reports. Scary stuff.
I have worked as both a Developer and a Police Officer. As a police officer most of the criminals I dealt with lied about their information and some of that information was added into official government documents. It was always a headache have to figure out who a person was. But, then there is that little caveat that you are required to act on the information you are provided at the time of the arrest. So, I can see how the mistake may have happened but it is scary because it can probably happen to any of us.
I find it even more pathetic that some of these cases were actually dismissed without any compensation to the victims involved. That is the biggest travesty of it all. As we rely more and more on data from different sources it will probably only get worse. How many of you find it difficult to merge different data together from different sources? And is everyone as meticulous as you?
Makes you think.
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