Breach Brief – U.S. Military Special Ops Healthcare

Published On January 4, 2017 | By Tom Huskerson | Breach Briefs, Now You Know

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.

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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