NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of small business owners reeling from the aggressive measures taken to halt the spread of the coronavirus may have had their personal information exposed last month on a government website that handles disaster loan applications.
The Small Business Administration said Tuesday that the personal information of more than 7,000 business owners applying for economic injury disaster loans was potentially seen by other applicants on the SBA website on March 25.
The SBA said only the disaster loan program was affected, not the Paycheck Protection Program, which did not begin until April 3 and which is handled by a separate system.
SBA spokeswoman Carol Wilkerson said the agency has notified the 7,913 owners whose information may have been exposed and offered them a year of free credit monitoring. The agency immediately disabled the affected part of its system, Wilkerson said.
In a letter to affected owners obtained by The Associated Press, the SBA said there is no evidence the exposed data has been misused. The information included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, financial information, email addresses and phone numbers.
apnews.com
