"On October 4, the Department of Defense identified a breach of personally identifiable information of DoD personnel that requires congressional notification … The Department is continuing to assess the risk of harm and will ensure notifications are made to impacted personnel whose PII may have been compromised … While additional information about this incident is being gathered, the Department is assessing further remedial measures," Buccino said late on Friday.
Meanwhile, media reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, that the breach might have affected around 30,000 personnel members.
The DoD revealed the data breach just days after the US Government Accountability Office issued a report about cybervulnerabilities in major weapon systems the DoD was developing over the past years. The report noted that cybersecurity had not been a priority for the Pentagon until relatively recently.