CNBC's Kate Rogers reports on how small businesses may have had information exposed on Small Business Administration's portal and 8,000 businesses were notified of the potential exposure.
Some small business owners seeking help via the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program may have had their personal data shared with other applicants.
The SBA notified nearly 8,000 business owners of the potential inadvertent disclosure of information, which included names, social security numbers, tax identification numbers, addresses, dates of birth, email, phone numbers, marital and citizenship status, household size, income, disclosure inquiry and financial and insurance information, according to a letter sent to business owners, which CNBC obtained.
“Personal identifiable information of a limited number of Economic Injury Disaster Loan applicants was potentially exposed to other applicants on SBA’s loan application site,” a senior administration official told CNBC. “We immediately disabled the impacted portion of the website, addressed the issue, and relaunched the application portal.”
The official said that, in order to access other business owners’ information, small business applicants must have been in the loan application portal.
If the user attempted to hit the page back button, he or she may have seen information that belonged to another business owner, not their own. The official said that 4 million small business owners applied for $383 billion in aid via the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and Emergency grants. The two programs are funded for just $17 billion.
The impacted businesses have been offered identity theft protection services for a year. The letter sent to businesses says that, as of April 13, there has been no evidence to suggest there has been any attempt to misuse any of the information.
The disclosure is a potential hit to a program that has frustrated Main Street since its launch.
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