This weekend, the Daily Caller cited a recently released Government Publishing Office (GPO) report which found that thousands of White House visitors had their Social Security numbers leaked.
According to the report, the leak affected nearly 2,000 individuals who went to the White House in December of 2020.
It indicated that the Social Security numbers were inadvertently released when the Democrat-controlled House January 6 requested a list of everyone who visited the White House prior to the riot on Capitol Hill.
"In February 2022, the White House (via letter) directed the Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), to provide the Select Committee with White House visitor logs from December 2020 – January 2021," the report stated.
The logs contained Social Security numbers which subsequently became available to the public after the January 6 committee released its final report.
"On January 4, 2023, a public news outlet notified GPO that a supporting document included the SSNs of nearly 2,000 White House visitors (who visited in December 2020)," the report explained, adding, "GPO subsequently removed the file from public access and replaced it with a redacted version provided by NARA."
The watchdog for the Government Publishing Office said 1,900 Social Security numbers were published in error as part of the Jan. 6 House select committee's final report. https://t.co/B3Gt0hpbGO
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 31, 2023
The report then stressed that "[d]ue to the involvement of multiple governmental agencies from different branches of government, it is not clear which body is responsible for the breach response."
"GPO has presented congressional oversight with a breach response plan and is waiting for their approval to act," it declared.
The Daily Caller noted that the report contained multiple recommendations, including the development of a process to more "overtly notify customers to review their information" prior to publication.
Another suggestion is to require written confirmation that sensitive information has been "sanitized" prior to publication.
What's more, the report also calls for congressional oversight which would permit the GPO to remove published material without prior approval.
News of the leak caused outrage online, with some Twitter users refusing to believe that the breach was unintentional.
The federal government leaked the social security numbers of visitors to the White House during the month of December 2020. Great timing right? They did it “accidentally” for the #J6 investigation.
I call BS! They don’t do anything accidentally 🤬https://t.co/gzTUScYAoX
— 🇺🇸❤️ Catia ❤️🇮🇹 (@CB618444) April 3, 2023
