The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced Friday it failed to protect 2.3 million disaster survivors’ sensitive personal information, potentially putting them at risk for identity theft and fraud.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General found that the breach happened as the agency was transferring information to a contractor to secure temporary housing for those impacted by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the 2017 California wildfires.
The agency said it is taking steps to mitigate the situation by working with the contractor to remove unnecessary material from its databases.
“Since discovery of this issue, FEMA has taken aggressive measures to correct this error. FEMA is no longer sharing unnecessary data with the contractor and has conducted a detailed review of the contractor’s information system,” FEMA press secretary Lizzie Litzow said in a statement. – READ MORE