A new era of vulnerability for sensitive information is about to begin.[1] Last month, two federal agencies were involved in a hacking incident that compromised a significant amount of sensitive data. This event occurred during a network compromise of an operational system managed by the Central Military Data Agency of the Army, which stores the personnel records of the Pentagon's employees.[2] According to a notice published on Reddit, the data included social security numbers, names, addresses, gender, race, and professional specialization. This category is particularly useful for foreign intelligence agencies because it can help them identify high-ranking military personnel.

The Central Military Data Agency has stated that the compromise has affected over 200,000 active or former Pentagon employees.[4] A potential advantage: This incident is the second time in recent weeks that a major cybersecurity network has exploded with sensitive information related to government people. Last year, ransomware group ShinyHunters accused of hacking systems of the Tax Administration and taking hostages of hundreds of documents from the agency. Reuters reported that the job titles in the documents were linked to investigations into China or Russia.

ShinyHunters claimed they did not intend to release the information, but promising criminal groups or foreign intelligence agencies could have a much smaller meaning if it's a crime group that hacked and extorted many organizations. An official from the Federal Cyber Dependency Agency called the community 'to discover' the members of the group. 'The longer you stay here, the more we learn about you,' Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the Cyber Dependency Division of the Federal Cyber Dependency Agency, said. 'You can find us, and we know how to find you. We replace your name.' Recent hacker incidents represent one of the biggest espionage gains since 2015 when US cyber warriors obtained 221 million records related to government employees or people with security clearance.[3]