The IRS Accidentally Exposes Tens of Thousands of Social Security Numbers Online

The IRS is in the news for having accidentally posted the Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people.AccountingToday recently reported that website  Public.Resource.org, which specializes in posting government documents in the public domain, discovered the privacy breach and alerted the IRS and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The Social Security numbers were included in a Section 527 political organizations database, which is used by journalists, congressional staffers, watchdog groups, and citizens. The Social Security numbers should have been removed before the database was posted, but weren’t. 

The breach was discovered on June 2, and on June 3 the database was removed.