The government in Bozeman is nuts to take on this kind of liability. How do they safeguard that information? Do they log all the actions they take? What kind of insurance coverage do they have for accidental or malicious damage to people’s accounts and reputations? Do I have credit card protection against someone ordering things through a site when I willingly give them my password?

It is one thing to for someone to hack Sarah Palin’s e-mail. It is entirely another to have the cleartext personal passwords for every city employee stored on some poorly-maintained city computer.

Of course, this is possible to deal with, though it would be a hassle. Change all your passwords after you get the job.

I like this attitude towards this sort of nonsense: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/police_powers_a.html