Army National Guard members from as far back as 2004 are being warned their personal information may be at risk due to a data breach, separate from the massive Office of Personnel Management hack, that compromised the outfit’s computer-stored information.
OPM reported a hack of nearly 22 million records, as previously reported by WND. This National Guard data breach is believed to have compromised members’ names, full Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth and other private information, the Hill reported.
“All current and former Army National Guard members since 2004 could be affected by this breach because files containing personal information [were] inadvertently transferred to a non-DoD-accredited data center by a contract employee,” said Maj. Earl Brown, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau, the Hill reported.
Brown also assured the National Guard was taking the breach seriously.
“After investigating the circumstances of these actions, and the information that was transferred, the Guard has determined, out of an abundance of caution, to inform current and past Guard personnel that their personally identifiable information (PII) was among the files that were transferred,” he said, the Hill reported.
Brown specified the data breach isn’t believed to have been malicious.
“The issue was identified and promptly reported, and we believe the data will be used lawfully.” he said. “This was not a hacking incident, in which the intent was to use data for financial gain. Nonetheless, the Guard believes that individuals potentially affected need to know about the breach and what actions they can take to protect themselves from potential identity theft.”
