The Pentagon is informing more than 2 million current and former military members that their personnel records storing sensitive personal information were stolen over a monthslong compromise of one of its networks. The breach is the second one in recent months to expose sensitive government information.
The records 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. The Pentagon says the breach compromised the records of 2.8 million living individuals.
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 the job titles in the records included ones related to investigating China or Russia.
ShinyHunters said it has no plans to release the information, but the promises of a criminal organization mean very little. An FBI official called on group members to turn themselves in after Dutch police arrested a ShinyHunters member.
Together, the recent breaches represent one of the biggest potential espionage hauls since the 2015 hack of the US Office of Personnel Management, when China-state hackers obtained 22.1 million records.
The Defense Manpower Data Center handles more than 60 million Defense Department person records. Department officials have said the stolen data hasn’t been misused, but haven’t explained how they reached that conclusion.