14 DAY TRIAL // The cyber attack on the systems of the US Investigation Services (USIS), a company running background checks for employees of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), exposed details of 25,000 US government workers, according to Reuters.
The incident was reported at the beginning of the month, and it is believed that behind it there are actors supported by a foreign government; the incident “has all the markings of a state-sponsored attack,” forensic investigators say.
Reuters informs that the affected employees have received notifications about highly sensitive personal information being exposed as a result of the intrusion.
The set of details accessed without authorization comprises social security numbers, education and criminal history, birth dates, as well as info about spouses, other relatives and friends, their names and addresses being included in the records.
Although there is evidence of intrusion, the investigation could not determine if the perpetrators managed to actually exfiltrate the data from the USIS computer systems.
After identifying the attack, USIS reported it to federal law enforcement, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and other agencies.
As a result of the incident, OPM and DHS have both suspended their work with USIS on employee security background verifications.
There is no need to stress the importance the accessed data has for foreign intelligence agencies. Dmitri Alperovitch, CTO at CrowdStrike, told Reuters that the spying entities could use these details “to identify individuals who might be vulnerable to extortion and recruitment.”