So at 5 pm on Thanksgiving eve, the Navy discloses a data breach?
Story Number: NNS161123-13Release Date: 11/23/2016 5:01:00 PM
By Chief of Naval Personnel Public AffairsWASHINGTON (NNS) — Oct. 27, 2016, the Navy was notified by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services (HPES) that one of the company’s laptops operated by their employee supporting a Navy contract was reported as compromised.
After analysis by HPES and a continuing Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigation, it was determined Nov. 22, 2016, that sensitive information, including the names and Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of 134,386 current and former Sailors were accessed by unknown individuals.
“The Navy takes this incident extremely seriously- this is a matter of trust for our Sailors,” said Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke. “We are in the early stages of investigating and are working quickly to identify and take care of those affected by this breach.”
The Navy will notify those affected Sailors in the coming weeks by multiple means including phone, letter and email.
For those affected by this incident, the Navy is working to provide further details on what happened, and is reviewing credit monitoring service options for affected Sailors.
At this stage of the investigation, there is no evidence to suggest misuse of the information that was compromised.
Earlier this month, DataBreaches.net reported an incident involving a stolen HPES laptop bag containing information on Indiana Health Coverage Program members. That incident was based on a printout that was in the laptop bag, but the bag also contained a laptop that HPE reported was “encrypted.” It’s not clear whether this report from the Navy involves that laptop or if this is a totally separate and second incident. DataBreaches.net has emailed HPE to inquire whether this was part of the same incident, or a second incident, and will update this post when a response is received.