Enron - The Pain Keeps coming

Feb 25th, 2006

Note: I posted this to slashdot along with proof of the Private data. It has not yet been approved.

A year (or more) ago, a large batch of Enron emails were released to the public. This data set has been very useful from a ‘Research’ perspective. Just this weekend, I was using it to test the speed of PCRE vs Python vs Perl…until I happened upon a little nugget of information which led me to look at the dataset from a Security/Privacy perspective.

It appears as if data is included within these emails which violates individual Privacy. The data includes, but is not limited to, Account information to non-Enron applications (FTP login credentials, web credentials, etc.), Parent-teacher school data, private residence addresses, private residence phone numbers, Names and Social Security Numbers, and more.

Where did the Enron emails come from? The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That’s sad.

Some examples (I stripped out the SSN or Credit Card number with X’s, and changed the name/address):

A Social Security Number

To: Patti Thompson/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc: Sally Beck/HOU/ECT@ECT, Shelly Jones/HOU/ECT@ECT
Subject: Summer Intern Information

Patti:

The following intern will be in Sally’s department this summer:

Name Start Date SS#

Jane Doe May 22, 2000 XXX-XX-XXXX

Please let me know the CO# and Cost Center#.

If you have any questions, I can be reached at x35850.

Thank you.

-sap

Another Social Security Number

From: christina.valdez@enron.com
Subject: Tom Hopwood
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Badge #15518 - SS # XXX-XX-XXXX

A Credit Card purchase

Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 08:07:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: john.arnold@enron.com
To: ticketwarehouse@aol.com
Subject: Re: eBay End of Auction - Item # 1236142249
Mime-Version: 1.0^
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

199.99+ $18 o/n shipping = 217.99

Visa 4128 XXXX XXXX XXXX exp X/XX

shipping and billing address :
John Arnold
XXXX XXXX XX
Houston, TX 77002
XXX-XXX-XXXX

!Dmitry