Wednesday, April 22, 2020

SBA website leaks personal data of 8,000 small-business loan applicants

The U.S. Small Business Administration notified 8,000 small-business owners on Tuesday about a software bug that may have exposed their personal information online.

The glitch affected the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) portal, which is used by small-business owners seeking financial relief from the coronavirus pandemic. The SBA said on its website that EIDL applicants who are “currently experiencing a temporary loss of revenue” can receive up to $10,000 in financial aid.

An SBA spokesperson said it discovered the bug on March 25 and has since fixed the error.

“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,” the spokesperson said. “We immediately disabled the impacted portion of the website, addressed the issue, and relaunched the application portal.”

Affected applicants will receive a year of free credit monitoring. 

Some of the information that was leaked included Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, household size, and phone numbers, according to an SBA letter sent to applicants, CNBC reported.

The software glitch affected only the EIDL portal and not the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) portal.

However, the PPP portal experienced its own problems earlier this month when thousands of small-business owners flooded the site to apply for financial aid as part of the program’s now-depleted pool of nearly $350 billion in loans. Although the PPP portal went offline for several hours, presumably because of the large number of people applying for aid, an SBA official told Bloomberg News at the time that “it’s not accurate that the system crashed.” 

More must-read tech coverage from Fortune:

—How the coronavirus stimulus package would change gig worker benefits
—Zoom meetings keep getting hacked. How to prevent “Zoom bombing”
—Why China’s tech-based fight against the coronavirus may be unpalatable in the U.S.
—Hospitals are running low on the most critical supply of all: oxygen
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: Best earbuds in 2020: Apple AirPods Pro Vs. Sony WF-1000XM3

Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.



* This article was originally published here

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments, questions or critique is more than appreciated.

Can an A.I. algorithm help end unfair lending? This company says yes

Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism,  subscribe today . ...