WASHINGTON: The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) exposed 2.3 million disaster survivors to possible identity theft and fraud by improperly sharing sensitive personal information with an outside company, according to an internal government watchdog.
The US Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said FEMA had shared financial records and other sensitive information of people who had participated in an emergency shelter program after being displaced by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017.
The Inspector General’s office said FEMA had shared participants’ home addresses and bank account information with the contractor, along with necessary information like their names and birthdates.
That “has placed approximately 2.3 million disaster survivors at increased risk of identity theft and fraud,” the Inspector General’s office said in a report. The name of the contactor was redacted.
FEMA spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow said the agency had found no indication to suggest survivor data had been compromised.
“It’s not identified as a data breach. It’s oversharing of information,” she said.
Litzow said the agency has removed unnecessary information from the contractor’s computer systems.
But FEMA’s review only found that the contractor’s computer systems had not been breached within the past 30 days because it did not keep records beyond that point, OIG said. FEMA told the watchdog it will not be able to completely resolve the problem until June 30.
It is not the first time OIG has found that FEMA has mishandled personal information. A 2015 review revealed that agency personnel at a disaster-response center in California stored disaster survivor records in open, unsecured cardboard boxes. Investigators also found the agency mishandled data in 2013.
FEMA awarded contracts to 1,660 different entities in the last fiscal year, according to federal contracting data, covering everything from food to construction equipment.
The privacy breach is likely to prompt further criticism of an agency that was stretched to its limit in the second half of 2017 as it responded to a string of record-breaking hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.
In particular, FEMA struggled to deliver food and water in a timely fashion to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria killed nearly 3,000 people and left the island’s 3.7 million residents without electricity for several months.
FEMA director Brock Long faced criticism last fall when DHS determined that he had inappropriately used government vehicles to commute between Washington and North Carolina. He resigned in February, capping an 18-month tenure during which the agency responded to more than 220 declared disasters.
US agency error exposes 2.3 million disaster survivors to fraud
US agency error exposes 2.3 million disaster survivors to fraud
- FEMA awarded contracts to 1,660 different entities in the last fiscal year, according to federal contracting data, covering everything from food to construction equipment
UK government publishes files about the appointment of Epstein friend Mandelson to ambassador post
- The government has said the files will show that Mandelson misled officials about the extent of the relationship
- Starmer is facing a political storm over his decision to give him the Washington job
LONDON: The British government on Wednesday published a batch of documents related to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, as police investigate potential misconduct stemming from the ex-diplomat’s ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein.
The 147-page release was published Wednesday on the government website.
Lawmakers have forced Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to disclose thousands of files about the decision to name Mandelson to the key diplomatic post at the start of US President Donald Trump’s second term, despite a past friendship with the convicted sex offender.
The government has said the files will show that Mandelson misled officials about the extent of the relationship. But Starmer is facing a political storm over his decision to give him the Washington job.
Mandelson, 72, a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, was arrested Feb. 23 at his London home on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He has been released without bail conditions as the police investigation continues.
He has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.
Cabinet minister Darren Jones said the “first tranche of documents” will be published Wednesday afternoon.
The documents are being published in batches after review by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. Police have asked the government not to release files that could compromise their criminal investigation into Mandelson.
“The documents that will be published today later to Parliament will provide full transparency about the appointments process, bar one document that has been held back by the Metropolitan Police because of an ongoing criminal investigation,” Jones told broadcaster ITV.
Starmer fired Mandelson in September after an earlier release of documents showed he had maintained contact with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sexual offenses involving a minor.
Further details about Mandelson’s ties with Epstein, revealed in a huge trove of files published by the US Department of Justice in January, drove opponents and even some members of Starmer’s Labour Party to call for the prime minister’s resignation. Starmer survived the immediate danger, but his position remains fragile, even though he never met Epstein and is not implicated in his crimes.
Starmer has apologized to Epstein’s victims and said he was sorry for “having believed Mandelson’s lies.”
The Epstein files suggest that Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to the convicted sex offender when he was the UK government’s business secretary after the 2008 financial crisis.
That includes an internal government report discussing ways the UK could raise money, including by selling off government assets. Mandelson also appears to have told Epstein he would lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
Mandelson is also facing a separate probe by the European Union’s anti-fraud office for the time he spent as the bloc’s trade representative.
