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A data breach at the US Navy has exposed the social security numbers and names of more than 130,000 current and former sailors, officials confirmed late on Wednesday—adding that “unknown individuals” had accessed the sensitive information.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise told the US Navy that one of its laptops operated by a contractor had been “compromised,” however it didn’t provide any further information about how the breach—affecting 143,386 sailors—had occurred.
“The Navy takes this incident extremely seriously—this is a matter of trust for our sailors,” said chief of naval personnel vice admiral Robert Burke. “We are in the early stages of investigating and are working quickly to identify and take care of those affected by this breach.”