Hackers gained access to the personal records of tens of thousands of individuals who worked for and visited Army commands previously located at Fort Monmouth, NJ.
Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) spokeswoman Andricka Thomas told the that roughly 36,000 people were affected, including CECOM and C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) personnel.
"A mix of full names, dates and places of birth, Social Security numbers, home addresses, and salaries" may have been stolen, Thomas said in a statement.
Hackers had at least accessed names and corresponding numbers, she added. The Army became aware of the breach on Dec. 6 and took the databases offline right away, Thomas said.
She did not speculate as to who was behind the breach or what their motivation might have been.
A letter from CECOM commander, Maj. Gen. Robert S. Ferrell indicated that the information had been obtained from CECOM files at the Software Engineering Center and Fort Monmouth's visitor records. Both CECOM and C4ISR have since been relocated to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
The army will offer free credit-monitoring services to those affected.