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USPS: Hack That Affected 800,000 Employees 'Very Sophisticated'

There was no evidence of identity theft in a breach that might have exposed the Social Security numbers of around 800,000 employees of the USPS.
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There was no evidence of identity theft in a security breach that might have exposed the Social Security numbers and other personal information of around 800,000 employees of the U.S. Postal Service, a USPS official said Wednesday at a Congressional hearing. News of the cyberattack was made public last week. The U.S. State Department and the White House have also acknowledged being the target of hackers over the last few weeks. The USPS claims that no customer credit card data was stolen, but employees might have had personal information like their names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers compromised. Randy Miskanic, the head of USPS digital security, told Congress that the hack was "very sophisticated" and it took several weeks before the agency knew a breach had occurred. Still, he said there was no evidence of any identity theft following the hack. Following reports that Chinese government hackers might have been responsible, Miskanic declined to say who intelligence officials thought was behind the attack. Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch criticized the USPS for not telling its employees about the breach earlier, calling it "secret squirrel stuff."

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— Keith Wagstaff