The Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) on Wednesday confirmed a information breach call for the personally identifiable data of more than 240,000 current and former DHS employee .
The agency expose few details about how the information was compromise , though it stressed that the information was not stolen in a cyberattack , nor was it exposed to malicious activity . Instead , the files were discovered in the willpower of a former DHS Office of Inspector General ( OIG ) employee during an on-going condemnable investigation last May , the agency aver .
The individuality of the former employee was not disclosed , and the focus of the criminal probe is unknown .
DHS employees whose information had been compromise — name , Social Security issue , date of birth , positions , grades , and obligation stations — receive notice letters today , the bureau sound out .
Why did it take roughly seven months to apprize the affected employees ? “ The investigating was complex given its close connection to an ongoing criminal investigating , ” the agency said on its website . “ From May through November 2017 , DHS conducted a thorough privateness investigation , all-encompassing forensic analysis of the compromise data , an in - depth assessment of the risk to affected individuals , and comprehensive technical evaluations of the data elements exposed . ”
According to DHS , in addition to employee information , a riches of investigative data was also put at peril . Those files include data on “ subjects , witnesser , and complainant who were both DHS employees and non - DHS employees . ” The amount of personally identifiable data in the investigative records “ motley for each individual depending on the documentation and grounds collected for a give case , ” DHS said .
The data compromised belong to “ non - DHS employee ” ( meaning , presumably , secret mortal ) may include : Social Security numbers , foreign registration numbers , dates of birth , email computer address , speech sound numbers , residential addresses , as well as any “ personal data provided in interviews ” to DHS Office of Inspector General agents between 2002 and 2014 .
For DHS employees at least , the file did not admit any information about employee ’ better half or other family member .
While DHS employee have been notified directly regarding the breach , anyone who has ground to believe their information may have been include in the compromised investigative files have been encourage to contact AllClear ID ( 855 - 260 - 2767 ) to receive information about deferred payment monitoring and identity protection service .
At the prison term of the falling out , retired USMC General John F. Kelly was chief of DHS . He now serve as President Donald Trump ’s chief of staff . Trump ’s former deputy sheriff chief of staff , Kirstjen Nielsen , took over as head of DHS last month .
[ Cyberscoop ]
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