Pentagon Says 2.8 Million Records Stolen in Breach, Second Federal Hack in a Month
The Pentagon is notifying more than 2 million current and former military members that a monthslong breach of a Defense Department network exposed sensitive personnel records. The incident follows a claimed ransomware hack of FBI systems.
The Pentagon said the breach compromised the records of 2.8 million living individuals. The records, according to one notification letter posted to Reddit, included Social Security numbers, names, addresses, sex, race, and occupational specialty.
Starting last October, hackers gained access to a system operated by the Defense Manpower Data Center, which collates Department of Defense personnel records. The occupational specialty category could be particularly valuable to foreign adversaries because it could help their intelligence agencies in identifying high-value military personnel, according to Ars Technica.
The incident is the second time in recent months that a major network breach has exposed sensitive US government personnel records that criminal groups or foreign adversaries could use. Last month, the ransomware group ShinyHunters claimed it hacked into FBI systems and stole records of thousands of the agency’s current or former employees. Reuters reported that the job titles in those records included ones related to investigating China or Russia.