Online Posting of Info Gives Easy Access to ID Theives
The far reaching effects of Katrina are still making themselves known. When the devastating hurricane hit new Orleans, thousands of people were displaced, and some went off the grids altogether – to reappear months later in other cities and states living under assumed identities.
Identity theft easy in face of disaster
The handling of such a catastrophe was going to be difficult, everyone knew, but just how vulnerable victims could be wasn’t driven home completely until last week, when FEMA revealed the names and social security numbers of more than 16,850 relocated individuals had been posted on two websites.
The SSNs, names and private information was brought to the attention of FEMA by an applicant who noticed the information and recognized it as pertaining to the time of Katrina and the relocation.
FEMA not at fault
FEMA acted quickly to verify that the information was indeed from Katrina sources, and worked to get the information removed as swiftly as possible. The information was in spread sheet form, and not in the format used by FEMA. The information is believed to have been properly released to a state agency who improperly handled the data.
FEMA issued a release which stated that “While FEMA’s release of this information was properly authorized under the Privacy Act and FEMA’s process for protecting its applicants’ personal information, the subsequent public posting of much of this data was not authorized by FEMA.”
Watch your personal information
In this case, it has been established that the information went through the Texas Workforce Commission before being posted to the storage websites. The formatting bears this out. It is important to keep track of who you share your info with and when and why – this can help later in case you also are a victim and need help reconstructing your life!
