United States Postal Service Reports Possible Breach The hack may have compromised more than 800,000 employees' personal data, including Social Security numbers.
By Laura Entis
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
The United States Postal Service is the latest victim in a long list of organizations to have recently experienced a data breach, saying it believes more than 800,000 employees' personal data – including Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth, addresses among other information – may have been compromised, the Washington Post reports.
Customer credit-card data from postal offices or online purchases is said not to be at risk.
The FBI first alerted the USPS of a possible breach back in mid-September. While the organization began dealing with the repercussions of the attack immediately, remediation did not take place until now as "acting too quickly could have caused more data to be compromised," David Partenheimer, a USPS spokesperson, told the Washington Post.
While agency did not say who was behind the breach, the Washington Post speculates that Chinese government hackers may be to blame.
Related: Home Depot Reports Bigger Breach Than Target; Criminals Used Custom Malware
