Ellen Nakashima reports:
The personal data of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers — including those in the Special Forces — continue to be downloaded by unauthorized computer users in countries such as China and Pakistan, despite Army assurances that it would try to fix the problem, according to a private firm that monitors cybersecurity.
Tiversa, which scours the Internet for sensitive data, discovered the data breaches while conducting research for private clients. The company found, as recently as this week, documents containing Social Security numbers, blood types, cellphone numbers, e-mail addresses, and the names of soldiers’ spouses and children.
[…]
Of particular concern to security experts is Tiversa’s discovery of personal information about soldiers in the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), whose mission area is Africa.
“These guys are operating behind lines, and they are absolutely in the deepest part of the fight,” said James Mulvenon, vice president of the intelligence division at Defense Group, a security consulting firm. “The fact that the documents have the names and addresses of the families and all the pressures that could be put to bear on them, it’s a nightmare.”
Carol Darby, a spokeswoman for the Army Special Operations Command, confirmed the data breach but described it as an isolated incident. She said those involved in the breach had been punished, but she did not provide details.
Read the full article on The Washington Post.