The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicle Services Division’s data system “works well” for handling fees and Oregonians’ data, according to an audit that was made public on Wednesday. However, security and accessibility issues were also detected.
The Oregon License and Vehicle Registration system, or OLIVR, which was put into place in 2019 and contributed to the growth of the DMV’s online services, was the main focus of the audit. Additionally, OLIVR is in charge of keeping track of millions of Oregonians’ personally identifiable information, including home addresses and dates of birth.
According to the Oregon Secretary of State Audits Division, OLIVR correctly collects and transfers Oregonians’ fees and data, and their findings were “largely positive” overall.
But auditors also discovered that the DMV needs to improve website accessibility and security. The auditors concluded that the DMV must enhance its management of employees’ access to OLIVR.
“The OLIVR application uses role-based access and has appropriate roles and separation of duties. However, user account management processes governing access to OLIVR are not sufficient to ensure DMV employees only have access to system functionality needed to perform their duties,” according to the auditors.
The auditors also recommended that the DMV strengthen passwords and do more frequent security risk evaluations of OLIVR. Accessibility is another area that officials determined requires “significant” repair.
The audit found that the DMV must make online services more accessible to those with disabilities and others who do not speak English as their first language.
Despite the fact that the DMV website offers language translation services, officials stated that the service portal itself does not and instead makes use of Google Translate on the web browser.
They pointed out that Google Translate was not user-friendly for users of the DMV website, was inconsistent across pages, and did not function on tablets.
“Oregonians should be reassured by the findings in this audit, and the DMV should be happy with the work that’s already been done to implement and secure OLIVR,” said Audits Director Kip Memmott in a statement regarding the findings. “They’ve laid a solid foundation, but it’s time to expand on it and fortify IT controls even more,” Memmott continued.
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In early October, Governor Tina Kotek and Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade called for an independent audit after the DMV registered over 1,500 ineligible voters, but officials pointed out the audit did not evaluate how the system identifies voter registration records for automatic voter registration in the state.
The Secretary of State’s Office claims that the ineligible registrations were caused by a DMV data processing error. According to the DMV, these voters had no effect on earlier elections and won’t have any effect on the November election.
