Two US federal agencies breached in a single month, spilling sensitive data

It has been a bad month for federal government cybersecurity in the US. Ars Technica reports that two separate government agencies were hacked over this period, and the breaches spilled a large amount of sensitive data.

The details available are limited: the story concerns two distinct incidents within a single month, each resulting in the compromise of information. The fact that federal bodies were the ones left exposed makes the events all the more troubling — such organizations are supposed to set the standard for security.

Two breaches in such a short span point, if not to a systemic failing, then at least to serious gaps in the defenses of government information systems. For agencies that hold citizens' personal and official records, leaks like these carry long-term consequences — from the risk of fraud to the erosion of trust in the state's ability to safeguard the data entrusted to it.

For now, only the broad outline is known: the month went badly, and the volume of leaked information was considerable.

Source: Ars Technica