2LT International News

WASHINGTON D.C.: A computer breach at the US Department of Transportation exposed the personal data of 237,000 current and former federal government employees.

While it was not clear if any of the personal information had been used for criminal purposes, the breach affected systems that process transit benefits, which reimburse government employees for certain commuting costs.

Over the weekend, Reuters reported that the Department of Transportation informed Congress that its initial investigation of the data breach has “isolated the breach to certain systems at the department used for administrative functions, such as employee transit benefits processing.”

The breach did not affect any transportation safety systems, said the Department of Transportation, which is investigating the breach and has frozen access to the transit benefit system until it is secured.

Hackers have previously targeted federal employees and agencies.

In 2014 and 2015, the US Office of Personnel Management was hit by two security hacks that compromised sensitive data belonging to more than 22 million people, including 4.2 million current and federal employees. The fingerprint data of 5.6 million of those individuals was also taken.

Reuters reported that in 2021, nine federal agencies were breached by suspected Russian hackers who used SolarWinds and Microsoft software to access unclassified Justice Department networks and read emails at the Treasury, Commerce and Homeland Security departments.