On February 3, DataBreaches quoted a press release by BakerHostetler about a breach update from DISA Global Solutions that DISA had issued on January 23, 2025. BakerHostetler’s release was subsequently removed from their website, although a copy still currently exists at PublicNow. Of note, in their main takeaways section, BakerHostetler quoted DISA’s update and commented:
DISA data has not been found on the dark web. DISA indicated it “took measures to dissuade the threat actor from publicly releasing any acquired data and to provide confirmation of the deletion of the data.” To date, DISA has no evidence of this data being released on the dark web. While this may provide comfort to some, it does not mean the data is not in the possession of bad actors and does not change potential notice obligations.
From that statement, it appeared that DISA had paid the unnamed threat actors for assurances of data deletion.
Yesterday, DISA submitted a breach notification to the Maine Attorney General’s Office. That submission indicated that a total of 3,332,750 people were affected by the breach. As in its previous disclosures, DISA stated that the breach occurred between February 9, 2024 and April 22, 2024.
One significant difference, however, is the omission of anything about DISA taking measures to dissuade the threat actor from publicly releasing any acquired data and to provide confirmation of data deletion.
So did DISA pay the threat actor or not? DataBreaches reached out to DISA to inquire about that, but no reply was immediately received.
And does the 3.3 million number represent all people affected, or does it only represent a subset of those affected, where the clients opted to have DISA make the notifications?
And what does it mean that their forensics investigation could not definitively conclude the specific data procured? Do they know or don’t they know what data was acquired by the threat actors for each of the more than 3.3 million people?
It seems that there is still much we do not know.
DISA’s website notice can be found at https://disa.com/notice.