26,000 US Dept of Agriculture employees had the uncomfortable knowledge on Friday that a hacker had managed to expose their personal information. Suspicious activity was noticed on June 3rd. Upon investigation it became apparent that an external party had compromised the system. It’s still unclear if the hacker managed to access the database that held the aforementioned information.
Agriculture secretary Mike Johanns ordered that anyone potentially affected be notified by email and in writing. Those employees are also eligible for a year’s worth of free credit monitoring services.
The federal agency’s cyber security staff noticed suspicious activity on a couple of its machines during the weekend of 3 June, indicating that an outsider was trying to gain illegal access. When staff members first notified Johanns of the incident three days later, they assured him that the personal information had sufficient protections to dispel concerns about identity theft.
Further investigation has not ruled out a nefarious purpose to the data breach.
[tags]Hacker, Data Theft, Data Security, Exploit, Identity Theft[/tags]
