In March 2019, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General reported that FEMA had unnecessarily overshared sensitive, personally identifiable information of some disaster survivors with its contractor that supports its Transitional Sheltering Assistance program. In response to this incident, FEMA acted quickly to ensure that overshared information was quarantined, protected, and permanently removed from the contractor’s system.
While we regret this error, the agency will continue to assure disaster survivors that it has not found any evidence that any of the overshared information was compromised. Out of an abundance of caution, FEMA will provide credit monitoring services for a period of 18 months to affected survivors who request the service. Instructions on how to contact FEMA, request free credit reporting, or register for free credit monitoring will be identified in a FEMA notification letter sent today to affected disaster survivors.
FEMA apologizes for any concern this overshare may have caused for disaster survivors; it remains committed to protecting and strengthening the security of disaster programs to help people before, during, and after disasters.
For more information, please visit FEMA website at www.fema.gov/survivor-privacy-incident.
###
FEMA's mission is to help people before, during and after disasters.
Follow FEMA online at www.fema.gov/blog, www.twitter.com/fema, www.twitter.com/FEMAespanol, https://www.facebook.com/FEMA, www.facebook.com/FEMAespanol and www.youtube.com/fema. Also, follow Acting Administrator Pete Gaynor's activities @FEMA_Pete.
The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.