News USDA Admits Posting Social Security Numbers “Not Appropriate”
posted by on April 22 at 12:45 PM
The U.S. Census Bureau has had the Social Security numbers of 63,000 people posted on public web sites for more than 10 years. The massive oversight was discovered by an Illinois farmer who was Googling herself (for shame), and found more than she expected.
… Marsha Bergmeier said she was bored April 12, so she did an Internet search for her farm’s name. It brought up a link to FedSpending.org, a site created by OMB Watch to allow monitoring of federal spending.The site includes a searchable database of federal contract information, and her farm loan amount, under an Agriculture Department program, was listed. Also listed, Bergmeier discovered, were the Social Security numbers of 28,000 farmers.
“I was in disbelief,” she said.
The breach is likely a violation of federal law.
“We take full responsibility for this and offer no excuses for it,” said Terri Teuber, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We absolutely do not think it was appropriate.”
If you’re among the tens of thousands of people who’s personal data has been compromised, take heart, the government means to make it up to you:
The USDA is offering one year of free credit monitoring to those affected.
Ka-ching!
This seems like a good opportunity to plug the ACLU's attempt to defeat the Federal Government's attempt to create a national ID card:
http://www.realnightmare.org
Props for the State Legislature and Governor for passing a law that makes Washington's participation in any such program contingent upon 1) having the federal goverment pay for it; 2) making sure the personal data collection doesn't unduly invade individuals' privacy and is securely protected (if that's even possible); and 3) doesn't not create onerous requirements for individuals that could prevent them from traveling, driving, or, if the power of these cards is later expanded, from voting.
Credit monitoring should be free always. The financial industry makes a lot of dough off of keeping this information about us, they could pay to protect the system they created.
The large criminal organizations that work to get people's information off the network or by hacking can read the "1 year of credit monitoring" offer made by the offending stewards of the information and *wait* for one year.
A year later the consumer is hit, they go through the huge hassle of dealing with identity theft and the organization that made it possible has long since washed their hands of their role in the matter.
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