Cyber Insecurity - Government Contractor Hacked

According to Reuters, when the US Investigative Services (USIS) was hit with a cyber attack in the first week of August, hackers were able to gain access to extremely personal information connected to DHS employees, Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers, and Customs and Border Protection units. The sensitive data included Social Security numbers, criminal history, and the names and addresses of friends and family.

Employees whose data was exposed are already getting letters of notice from the government, but the letters state it is not clear whether the data was actually stolen.

  RT

Or what to do about it.

It is also unclear what the hackers hoped to use the information for, though Dmitry Alperovitch of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said it could be used by foreign intelligence departments to intimidate government employees.

"They would be collecting this data to identify individuals who might be vulnerable to extortion and recruitment," he told Reuters.

Or other.

Congressional action over the matter is also under consideration. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said he would as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to launch an investigation, and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) called the incident “very troubling.”

“Americans’ personal information should always be secure, particularly when our national security is involved. An incident like this is simply unacceptable,” he added.

Now that it’s government security personnel. The rest of us could just go hang while the US collects our data waiting for some eventual use, waiting for someone to hack into and retrieve it for their use, and actually voluntarily shares it with the likes of Israel.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.