Two Federal Agency Hacks Expose Millions of Records
Original: Hacks of 2 federal agencies in a month have spilled a bonanza of sensitive data
Why This Matters
Back-to-back federal breaches revive OPM-scale concerns over military and law enforcement exposure.
The Pentagon is notifying 2.8 million current and former military personnel that their records—including SSNs, addresses, and job specialties—were stolen in a monthslong breach of Defense Manpower Data Center systems starting October 2025.
The Defense Manpower Data Center, which manages over 60 million DoD personnel records, was compromised starting last October. Stolen data includes Social Security numbers, names, addresses, sex, race, and occupational specialties—the last category particularly sensitive because it could help foreign intelligence services identify high-value military targets.
This is the second significant federal breach in recent months. Last month, ransomware group ShinyHunters claimed it hacked FBI systems and stole records of thousands of current and former employees, including personnel linked to China and Russia investigations, per Reuters. ShinyHunters says it won't release the data—a pledge worth little from a group that has extorted hundreds of organizations.
FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman publicly called on ShinyHunters members to surrender after Dutch police arrested one member. "The longer you stay in this, the more we learn about you," he said.
Together, the two incidents represent one of the largest potential espionage windfalls since China-linked hackers stole 22.1 million OPM records in 2015—a haul that included fingerprint scans. The Pentagon has not disclosed how attackers entered its systems, whether ransom demands were made, or how it determined the stolen data has not yet been misused.