Database Leaks 150,000 Social Secuirty Numbers

For years, the social security numbers of thousands of recipients of special loans or financial assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture have been publicly available in a database on a Web site.

The government had been unaware of the slip-up, which was first reported by FedSpending.org, a non-profit watchdog group. It is thought that between 100,000 to 150,000 farmers were affected by the incident.

Representatives for OMB Watch, the group responsible for FedSpending, say the information was removed from the site last week.

At the current time, there is no evidence of misuse of the data available from the site. However, the agency defended itself by saying social security numbers have always been a part of the database, as it was not unusual to include that information when it was first created.

The agency says it was in the process of contacting those affected, and would shortly begin offering credit monitoring to those who request it. The program is expected to cost the government around $4 million.

Recently, as identity theft became an increasingly larger problem, the United States Government began to comb through its publicly available databases and removed potentially-sensitive information. It apparently had skipped this particular site, representatives said.