← 2026-09-3012brief

Pentagon breach exposed Social Security numbers of 3.05 million people over nine months

Hackers sat inside a Defense Manpower Data Center file-sharing system from October 2025 until a July fix.

The living make up about 90% of those exposed, or 2.76 million people, and the rest are dead; their files include Social Security numbers and job details. Officials say there is no evidence yet that the data has been misused.

Key figures:

  • Access ran from October 2025 to July 2026, about nine months.
  • The DMDC found the flaw on July 16, 2026, and patched it that month.
  • The exposed files are about 5% of the more than 60 million personnel records the DMDC holds in total.