The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported on Monday, May 16, 2016, that it had experienced five “major incidents” involving the disclosure of taxpayers’ personal information since the last incident we reported on last month involving 44,000 records.
A “major incident” is defined as involving more than 10,000 records. The reported incidents all involved FDIC employees who “inadvertently” downloaded over 10,000 taxpayers’ information along with personal files when they left their employment with FDIC.
The FDIC reported that it obtained Affidavits from each of the departed employees attesting that they did not share the information with others. Hopefully, the FDIC was able to retrieve the taxpayer information so it is no longer in the possession of these individuals and are limiting access by employees to taxpayers’ personal information going forward.
The FDIC stated that it is launching new procedures to protect data, including software “to force encryption of portable devices.”