Posted Social Security numbers taken off

WASHINGTON -- The Social Security numbers of up to

150,000 people who received Agriculture Department grants havebeen posted on a government Web site since 1996, but they were takendown last week.

Free credit monitoring is being offered to those affected.

The security breach was only noticed last week and promptlyclosed, the Agriculture Department and Census Bureau announcedFriday.

The Agriculture data that included Social Security numbers wereremoved from the Web on April 13 and similar data from 32 otheragencies were taken down April 17 as a precaution, said Agriculturespokeswoman Terri Teuber.

A review has determined that none of the other agencies had asimilar problem, said Sean Kevelighan, spokesman for the Office ofManagement and Budget.

"There is no evidence that this information has been misused,"Teuber added.

The incident is likely to spur passage of a federal law requiringnotification of potential victims when personally identifiableinformation is disclosed or stolen electronically, Hoofnaglepredicted. Already 35 states have such a law.

The department said 105,000 to 150,000 Social Security numbershad been entered into databases open to the public since 1981. Butdata has only been posted on the Internet by the Census Bureau since1996.

The Census Bureau collects the grants made by 33 federal agenciesand posts them on the Internet without analysis. By law, the namesof these recipients and how much money they got are public records.

The disclosure comes six months after a congressional reportfound federal workers at 19 agencies had lost personal informationaffecting thousands of employees and the public, raising concernsabout the government's ability to protect sensitive information.

In all, the House Government Reform Committee reported 788incidents involving the loss or compromise of sensitive personalinformation since Jan. 1, 2003. That was in addition to the"hundreds of security and privacy incidents" at the Department ofVeterans Affairs, according to a report the committee issued inOctober.

Teuber said the two Agriculture Department programs involved gaveeach grant a 15-digit identifying number. Included among thosedigits was the recipient's 9-digit Social Security number. There wasnothing on the Web site that indicated the grant number containedthe Social Security number, but the recipient who reported theproblem recognized her Social Security number in the grant number,Teuber said.

To avoid revealing information that could increase thevulnerability of this private data, Teuber said Agriculture was notreleasing more details, including the Web address, of the governmentsite where this information was disclosed until all potentiallycompromised recipients have been notified.

The Agriculture Department is sending registered mailnotifications to 150,000 recipients identified as having been partof the public database since 1981, but Teuber said some people arelikely to be on that list more than once.

At an estimated taxpayer cost of $4 million, Agriculture isoffering each of them free credit monitoring for one year, Teubersaid.

USDA funding recipients who wish to take advantage of the creditmonitoring offer will receive instructions on how to register. AnyUSDA funding recipient with questions may call 1-800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-4636) or visit http://USA.gov. The call center operates from8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT, Monday-Friday.

Under supervision of the Office of Management and Budget, thegrant numbers posted by the other 32 agencies were taken down andreviewed to see if any included Social Security numbers. "We aresure no other agencies ... were impacted by similar problems," saidOMB's Kevelighan. He attributed the quick response to government-wide safeguards set up after the Veterans Affairs Departmentproblems last year.

Teuber said an unknown number of private Web sites had downloadedand reposted the information, but she said at least one of them, OMBWatch, had also removed the identifying grant numbers.

OMB Watch director Gary D. Bass said Bergmeier contacted hisgroup April 13 after finding her number on the Web site of hispublic interest group. The group referred her to Agriculture andCensus, where it got the data.

------

Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to thisreport.