A huge data breach believed to affect personal information of 237,000 current and former federal employees has become the latest debaucle to hit the US Department of Transportation (USDOT).
It is not clear if any of the personal information syphoned off in the cyber attack had been used for criminal purposes, or who the hackers might be, according to a media statement by USDOT. The Department notified Congress of the unauthorized access to confidential information on Friday in an email.
Lawmakers were told that an initial investigation revealed it targeted "certain systems at the department used for administrative functions, such as employee transit benefits processing." These TRANServe transit benefits are the ones that reimburse government employees for some commuting costs, with the maximum such allowance equal to $280 per month.
The department said that while it was investigating the breach, access to the transit benefit system had been "suspended."
No transportation safety systems were affected by the hacking intrusion, USDOT rushed to assure in a statement. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is now investigating if and what failings might have left the department vulnerable to such an intrusion.
The US Department of Transportation building is seen in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019.
© AFP 2023 / ALASTAIR PIKE
Not that such a data spill affecting federal employees and agencies is the first. Sensitive data belonging to more than 22 million people, including 4.2 million current and federal employees along with fingerprint data of an estimated 5.6 million was compromised in 2014 and 2015 at the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
As for the US Transportation Department and its current Secretary Pete Buttigieg, they faced a drubbing earlier in the year over a catastrophic nationwide flight shutdown. A “damaged database file” had caused the cancellation or delay of thousands of flights.
12 January 2023, 01:49 GMT