Pentagon Hacked Again, Compromising Employee Financial Info

By Stu Sjouwerman, founder and CEO of KnowBe4

Is the FTC now going to sue the Pentagon because they did not protect consumer information?

Hackers infiltrated the Pentagon food court’s computer system, compromising the credit and debit card info of an unknown number of employees. Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Defense Department spokesman, said on Tuesday that employees were notified that hackers may have stolen bank account information from people who paid for concessions at the Pentagon with a credit or debit card.

“Within the past week, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency has received numerous reports of fraudulent use of credit cards belonging to Pentagon personnel. These individuals had fraudulent charges to their account soon after they had legitimate transactions at the Pentagon,” according to a copy of the notice to employees obtained by the Washington Examiner.

Crosson was unable to say how many people have been affected or over what time period, saying the Pentagon Force Protection Agency is investigating.

The investigation is still looking into which of the Pentagon’s multiple food courts were affected, Crosson said. Investigators are asking employees to report if they receive a fraudulent charge on their credit card within the last 120 days and within 48 hours of making a purchase at the Pentagon. More at the Washington Examiner:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pentagon-food-court-computers-hacked-exposing-employees-bank-information/article/2571606

Usually the hackers get in with spear-phishing attacks using public facing email addresses. Which of your email addresses are exposed on the Internet and are a target for phishing attacks? You can get a one-time no-charge Email Exposure Check (EEC) sent to you if you want to know how big your email attack surface is:
http://www.knowbe4.com/email-exposure-check/

Stu Sjouwerman is the founder and CEO of KnowBe4, which hosts the world’s most popular integrated Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing platform. Realizing that the human element of security was being seriously neglected, Sjouwerman teamed with Kevin Mitnick, the world’s most famous hacker, to help organizations manage the problem of cybercrime social engineering tactics through new school security awareness training. Sjouwerman is the author of four books, with his latest being the national best-seller, Cyberheist: The Biggest Financial Threat Facing American Businesses.