DOGE Data Questions, Infrastructure Attacks and Klue Breach Top 2026 Hacks So Far

More than a year after operatives with the Elon Musk-led DOGE swept through and dismantled federal agencies from the inside out, TechCrunch reported that data lapses that happened under their watch are still being uncovered. After DOGE entered the Social Security Administration, it is not yet known what happened with some of the nation's most sensitive data, as lawsuits continue in federal courts. The most alarming claim by a federal whistleblower is that DOGE uploaded a live copy of the Social Security database to an unsecured third-party server, leading to a scramble to understand what was stored there. The database allegedly contained the Social Security numbers and associated personal information of most living Americans. In court filings, the Social Security Administration said it is not sure what was on the server, but said DOGE signed an agreement with an outside political advocacy group under the guise of finding evidence of voter fraud, which President Trump continues to claim without any evidence. Two top House Democrats investigating some of DOGE's activities at the Social Security Administration said the exposure "could very well be the largest data breach in our nation's history."

A rash of cyberattacks across Europe targeting civilian energy and water supplies, including power plants and water dams, has set a troubling trend. Several hacks attributed to or partly blamed on Russia have risked real-world harm to communities. Poland's energy grid was targeted with computer-destroying malware late last year, as was a Swedish thermal plant and a Norwegian dam that spilled entire swimming pools' worth of water. Earlier this year, Russian hackers targeted Poland's water treatment plants. Now, after the recent war waged by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, hackers working for the Iranian regime are actively targeting critical infrastructure across the United States in opportunistic attempts to disrupt neighborhoods and communities. CISA said Iranian hackers targeted over a hundred water providers over the summer, including privately owned water utilities, which remain a soft target as they often lack basic funding and cybersecurity protections.

Klue, a market research provider, was at the center of a huge data breach that affected close to 200 companies, several of which were cybersecurity giants such as Jamf, HackerOne and LastPass. It was one of the broadest data breaches of the year, affecting a multitude of Klue's customers less than a year after the company laid off half of its staff in favor of doubling down on AI. Klue admitted that an extortion gang dubbed Icarus broke into its systems using a credential that it issued in 2022 for a limited pilot, meaning the company had around four years to decommission the credential before it was stolen and used to break into its systems. In the data breach, Klue exposed the keys to its customers' cloud services, allowing the hackers to break in and steal stores of data to extort those companies for a ransom. While governments and researchers often urge victims not to pay ransoms to prevent hackers from profiting from cybercrime, Klue told its customers that it had reached an agreement with the hackers not to publish the stolen data, strongly suggesting that it had paid them. As part of the deal, the hackers conceded that another hacking group also had a portion of Klue's customers.