IRS Has Posted Hundreds Of Thousands of SSNs Online

[angelatc]

https://bulk.resource.org/irs.gov/eo/doc/irs.gov.20130707.html


The I.R.S. effort to date has been unprofessional and amateur. The I.R.S. has even gone so far as to assert copyright by the government on the political disclosures database in direct violation of the “works of government” clause of the Copyright Act. The I.R.S. has a policy that even in an emergency, their staff are not allowed to use e-mail to communicate with organizations such as ours, a policy that makes it much harder to respond to incidents quickly. The I.R.S. has recklessly violated the privacy of Americans and deliberately tried to keep scrutiny away from our worst charities.

[dannno]

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/936469_396020597185898_1154599506_n.jpg

[green73]

I heard it was like 2400. Can't get your link to work.

[Zippyjuan]

Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/07/08/report-irs-mistakenly-exposed-thousands-of-social-security-numbers/


IRS mistakenly exposed Social Security numbers:

An audit from a watchdog group revealed that the agency had unwittingly posted more than 2,000 Social Security numbers online, affecting nonprofit groups known as 527s. The numbers appeared online for less than 24 hours, according to a report from the National Journal.

The IRS said in a statement to the Post on Monday that federal law requires the agency to publicly post certain forms from 527 organizations, and that it “frequently and routinely reminds organizations of the public disclosure of these forms and urges them not to include personal information, including Social Security numbers, in their public filings.”

The IRS also said it is “assessing the situation and exploring available options” after the release of the watchdog report.

[torchbearer]

we should give these guys more of our info.

[phill4paul]

Anyway to find out which one's? I could use a coupla 'fraudulent' credit accounts.

[angelatc]

I heard it was like 2400. Can't get your link to work.


leave it to Wapo to blow smoke, zippy. here's two paragraphs from the original article;


The first was the discovery of 500,000 Social Security Numbers in the Congressional Record, a situation which the Government Printing Office dealt with very quickly, although the Department of Defense was much slower to react. (http://www.stripes.com/news/military-lags-in-safeguarding-officers-identities-1.96079)


The second instance was when we uncovered large numbers of Social Security Numbers (https://public.resource.org/uscourts.gov/) in the opinions of the Courts of Appeals and then later in the U.S. District Court PACER system. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html?_r=0) Although those audits received thanks from the judges and the United States Judicial Conference, they also resulted in a great deal of resistance by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.