Leaders of SC courts, DMV warn what could happen if ‘ancient' technology isn't upgraded

Yahoo

19-02-2025

South Carolina's courts and DMV are running on software systems that are three decades old and in need of massive upgrades. (Stock photo by)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina's courts and drivers' licensing agency are running on software systems that are roughly three decades old and in need of massive upgrades.
Together, the updates will cost about $200 million — of which, at least $45 million is requested in the coming budget.
Without an overhaul, agency heads say, the central database that courts rely on could go dark, law enforcement officers on patrol won't have a clue who they're pulling over, wait times at motor vehicle offices could skyrocket from minutes to months, and the risk of identity theft will keep rising.
'We have the keys to the kingdom with regards to personally identifiable information,' Kevin Shwedo, director of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, recently told a House budget-writing panel. 'People try to hack in every day.'
Beyond addresses and phone numbers, the personal data the DMV has on millions of South Carolinians includes Social Security numbers, birth certificates, passport numbers, marriage licenses, and divorce papers.
All of that's stored on a system developed at the turn of the century and modified more than 11,000 times since to keep up with an ever-increasing workload, Shwedo said.
The threat of getting hacked is real, he said, reminding legislators of the 2014 hacking of taxpayers' data from the state Department of Revenue. At the time, it was the largest hacking of a state agency.
Protecting the DMV's treasure trove from cyberthieves gets more difficult 'with an antiquated system,' Shwedo said.
'Everything we do is with a computer — everything,' he told legislators. 'If a computer shuts down, you get zero service from the DMV.'
He added, 'Not one of you would operate a home computer on 1990s technology.'
But that's what the DMV is doing.
The judicial branch isn't much better off, relying on early 2000s technology, and it's a problem that's becoming increasingly difficult to fix.
'I am informed that this ancient system utilizes a code that is outdated — no longer being used,' Chief Justice John Kittredge told a different House budget-writing panel.
'And the number of IT people who know the code and can decipher and understand it and respond to these problems gets smaller and smaller,' he said in his first budget request since taking the helm of the judicial branch last summer. 'That pool of talent and people decreases every year.'
The judiciary previously tried to upgrade its case management system, where court filings, schedules, judges' decisions and other court information can be accessed electronically. The Legislature provided $28 million to the judicial branch between 2019 and 2021 to do it, and a vendor was awarded the contract.
But that contractor failed to deliver, and the cost of upgrades has grown to an estimated $100 million, Kittredge said.
On Wednesday, Kittredge made his case to a Senate budget panel. The system is in constant need of fixing, and the information it provides even when working properly is 'incomplete at best,' he said.
For example, he knows court backlogs are delaying justice and resolutions for families, but the judicial computer system doesn't track the numbers he needs, such as emergency child custody hearings daily, to even know how badly schedules are swamped.
'I have to embark on a treasure hunt to find out,' he said. 'Why is the judicial branch this clueless? The list of what we don't know goes on and on, and I stress to you this must change.'
The judiciary still has $25 million unspent from the original contract that it's suing to void. It's also making cuts and repurposing some $30 million — collected mostly from court fines and fees — to help cover the cost.
That leaves $45 million in one-time funding the chief justice is seeking from legislators in the upcoming budget.
At the DMV, Shwedo has sought an upgrade for the past seven or eight years, but it keeps getting pushed back.
'We can't afford to wait for the system to be broken.' he said. 'When we kick the can down the road because the system hasn't broken yet, we're playing Russian roulette.'
Between June 2023 and July 2024, the DMV system went down 14 times and had to be fixed, according to the agency's budget proposal.
And it's only going to get more expensive over time, Shwedo said.
The Legislature set aside a total of $26 million in the last two budgets for the project. The DMV also has squirreled away $18 million in fees it collects.
Shwedo wants to raise the remaining $43 million needed for the upgrades by upping the fees it charges for drivers' records and other documents. He needs legislators' approval to do that.
Bumping those charges from $6 up to $10 per driver's record would put South Carolina more in line with fees charged in other Southern states and bring in an extra $12 million annually, he said.
That's enough to pay for the new system within five years as well as cybersecurity measures to protect against identity theft. After the upgrade's complete, the additional fees will cover the system's annual maintenance costs.
'If it breaks, it will take years to fix,' Shwedo said. 'I don't know what the pain level is.'
He reminded legislators of the four-hour waits at the DMV that South Carolinians complained about before the current computer system went live in 2002.
Shwedo told legislators there are states in the Southeast where residents cannot get an appointment at their local DMV for three months. He declined to specify which states.
But news outlets in North Carolina and Florida have reported on three-month waits.
In North Carolina for example, only 16 out of nearly 100 offices have a small number of appointments available in the next three months. Still, every office in the state takes walk-ins for those willing to wait in line, reported WLOS in Asheville.
In parts of Florida, people can spend an entire day waiting in line on top of a three-month wait for an appointment just to change their address or get a new ID, reported WSVN in Miami.