Oops: IRS publishes tens of thousands of SSNs to online database

[Chaotic Lord]

[QUOTE]It turns out you can't even trust the Internal Revenue Service with your social security number. Some bungling IT staffer at every Americans' favorite government agency forgot to redact tens of thousands of SSNs when uploading a new online database on the $1.5 trillion nonprofit industry.

Thanks to the keen eyes of PublicResource.org, a nonprofit that specializes in publishing government archives, the IRS has already shut down the database, so criminals looking for easy identity theft victims will have to search elsewhere for the time being.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.dailydot.com/news/irs-public-resource-social-security-numbers-publish-database/[/url]

[Skylortrexler]

How do you even fuck up that bad.

[sir whoopsalot]

[QUOTE=skylortrexle;41366779]How do you even fuck up that bad.[/QUOTE]

Well, very simple. Even the IRS isn't immune to mankind's greatest obstacle; stupidity.

Granted, this is rather colossal stupidity but still.

[redBadger]

Human beings fuck up.

[Greenen72]

This is the kind of shit I endlessly worry about when I'm working on something with confidential information

[Geel]

Is there a way to see if your SSN was compromised?

[Bromagnon]

I've been in the navy too long; title made me think they published a bunch of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSN_(hull_classification_symbol)]submarines[/url]

[Missing User]

[QUOTE=geel9;41366909]Is there a way to see if your SSN was compromised?[/QUOTE]

Published to a database does not mean it was compromised. If they caught it and took it down fast, its likely no one stole your #