FEMA's Katrina evacuee info on Web sites spurs probe
By Mike Hasten • mhasten@gannett.com
BATON ROUGE — An investigation into a security breach in Texas has found that an agency providing services to Hurricane Katrina evacuees inadvertently allowed the names and personal information of more than 16,000 evacuees to be posted on two Web sites.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was not responsible for the breach but has taken steps to prevent the evacuees from becoming victims of identity theft, said spokesman Andrew Thomas, of FEMA's office in Baton Rouge.
...An investigation found 16,857 lines of data had been posted on a site publicly displaying information about evacuees from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who had been transported to Texas....
..."We immediately worked to have it removed from public view," Thomas said.A few days later, FEMA found another Web site had the same information.
The agency was able to get that information pulled down, too.
"FEMA did not release this information," Thomas said...
...Regardless, FEMA notified all of the 16,857 people by telephone and later by letter that the breach had occurred.
The federal agency purchased identity theft insurance and enlisted the services of an identity theft protection service...(Full text at Shreveporttimes.com)
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