A cyber breach of a U.S. Marshals Service system resulted in the exposure of personal data of approximately 387,000 former and current prisoners at the end of 2019, Nextgov reported Monday. USMS sent letters to affected individuals notifying them of the intrusion and referring them to resources to help safeguard themselves from fraud and freeze their credit.
“The attackers were able to exploit a vulnerability in the system to extract sensitive personally identifiable information on approximately 387,000 individuals,” a spokesperson for the Marshals Service told the publication.
The cyber attack involved the DSNet system, which is designed to transport and house prisoners within the agency, Bureau of Prison and federal courts, and exposed the affected individuals' names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses.
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) security operations center informed USMS of the security breach, which was detected using a cyber monitoring tool, in December.
