Hackers have stolen unencrypted personal records belonging to about 2.8 million living U.S. military and Department of Defense personnel.
Unauthorized users exploited a vulnerability in a Defense Manpower Data Center file-sharing system for months, reports TechCrunch.
The breach also affected close to 300,000 deceased individuals, according to a Pentagon official cited by CNN and Federal News Network.
Exposed data included Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth, sex, race and other military service details.
A data breach notification from the Defense Manpower Data Center shared on Reddit says several unauthorized users exploited the vulnerability between October 2025 and mid-July 2026.
The vulnerability was discovered and patched on July 16th of 2026.
The Defense Manpower Data Center maintains more than 60 million records for military and civilian staff and their families to support benefits, entitlements and identity management.
“We make sure that the right people get access and the wrong people don’t: security of identity information is paramount,” the DMDC website states.
The Department of Defense said it has no indication the information was misused.
The incident follows other recent thefts of federal employee data, including a September FBI breach attributed to the ShinyHunters hacking group, and mirrors past large-scale breaches of government personnel records.
 
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