U.S. military healthcare professionals working with the Defense Department may have had highly sensitive personal information exposed by an employer IT error. Some of these personnel have top secret security clearances.
Chris Vickery of Mackeepers found 11GB of exposed files, including the names, locations, Social Security Numbers, salaries, and assigned units for scores of healthcare professionals working at the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
Many of the personnel files exposed in the data breach belong to SOCOM’s Preservation of the Force and Families (POTFF) program. The program is designed to have unit specific healthcare professionals and counselors working to ease the psychological and physical strains that affect military special ops troops and their families.
Vickery pointed out the exposed data and sloppiness of the government contractor known as Potomac Healthcare. The company is owned by the Booz Allen Hamilton. In his blogpost Vickery claimed to have to contact the company twice before any action was taken to remove the information.
“It is not presently known why an unprotected remote synchronization (rsync) service was active at an IP address tied to Potomac. I do know that when I called one of the company’s CEOs this past Thursday to report the exposure, he did not seem to take me seriously,” said Vickery.
Booz Allen Hamilton employed the now infamous Edward Snowden who leaked documents to the press in 2013, revealing the extent of US government spying.
