The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that a data breach involving an online application used to handle medical payments compromised the personal data of approximately 46,000 veterans.
VA’s Financial Services Center (FSC) discovered that unauthorized users used social engineering techniques and authentication protocols to access the online app in order to alter financial information and divert payments from the department to community health providers, VA said Monday.
The department’s Office of Information Technology will conduct a comprehensive security assessment before restoring system access to prevent data modification and unauthorized access.
The FSC has started to notify the affected individuals and deceased retirees’ next of kin of the data breach. VA is also offering free credit monitoring services to people whose Social Security numbers may have been exposed.
