U.S.Navy Disclosed Security Breach In Its Systems
Hackers gained access to personal information of 134,386 current and former U.S. sailors, the U.S. Navy said on Wednesday.
The data was accessed by unknown individuals and included the names and Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of sailors.
It said a laptop used by a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services employee working on a U.S. Navy contract was hacked. Hewlett Packard informed the Navy of the breach on Oct. 27 and the affected sailors will be notified in the coming weeks, the Navy said.
"The Navy takes this incident extremely seriously- this is a matter of trust for our Sailors," said Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke. "We are in the early stages of investigating and are working quickly to identify and take care of those affected by this breach."
The Navy will notify those affected Sailors in the coming weeks by multiple means including phone, letter and email.
For those affected by this incident, the Navy is working to provide further details on what happened, and is reviewing credit monitoring service options for affected Sailors.
"At this stage of the investigation, there is no evidence to suggest misuse of the information that was compromised," the Navy added.