2,3 million natural disaster victims face identity theft

The report of the Inspector General of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reports that the personal data of millions of people who survived the California forest fires 2017 of the year, hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, can be used in bad faith.

Фото: Depositphotos

The problem arose when, in the 2017 year, FEMA handed over to a private contractor the personal data of individuals applying for temporary housing, writes NBC News. This transfer of information violated the privacy law of 1974, the statement said.

The Agency estimates that 2,3 million people are at risk.

FEMA, the agency that provides assistance to U.S. citizens after major natural disasters, provided its contractor with “more than 20 non-mandatory items of information about survivors participating in the shelter program,” a March 15 report said.

The name of the contractor is not specified in the report. Some types of non-binding data included confidential personal information: electronic money transfer numbers and transit bank numbers.

“Until special measures are taken, disaster victims are at increased risk of identity theft and fraud,” it said.

FEMA spokeswoman Lizzie Litzou said the agency "is working with a contractor to remove non-binding information from the system."

“FEMA is no longer sharing non-mandatory data with the contractor and has conducted a detailed review of the contractor's information system,” Litzow said. “To date, FEMA has found no indicators to suggest that victim data was compromised.”

The agency has commissioned contractors to undergo additional confidentiality training.

Earlier, we wrote about what information fraudsters can assign to you and how to protect yourself from identity theft in the US.

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