Breach Brief – Small Business Administration

Published On April 23, 2020 | By Tom Huskerson | Breach Briefs, News and Analysis

As if life was not tough enough for America’s small businesses. Now the Small Business Administration reported that applicants to its Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL) may have had information exposed to other applicants.

According to the SBA 7,900 businesses that applied may have been affected and noted in a statement that it “immediately disabled the impacted portion of the website, addressed the issue, and relaunched the application portal.”

According to a letter from the SBA on March 25th the agency discovered that personal information might have been disclosed. Included in the breach are names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, email address, phone numbers, citizenship status and insurance information. The SBA reported that there had been no signs the information had been misused.

An SBA official explained to CNBC how the information could be exposed. In order to access other business owners’ information, applicants needed to be in the loan application portal. If the applicant hit the page back button information belonging to another business owner could become visible.

According to the official some 4 million small business owners impacted by the coronavirus pandemic have applied for $383 billion in aid through the program. The program is offering low-interest loans of up to $2 million and emergency grants of up to $10,000. The EIDL program initially had allocated just $17 billion for coronavirus relief, though a bill that recently passed the Senate would add $60 billion more to the program.

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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