Breach, Data Security

Army National Guard breach affects 850K, not related to OPM

Personal information from more than 850,000 current and former Army National Guard members may have been compromised, according to a Friday release.

The data "was inadvertently transferred to a non-[Department of Defense]-accredited data center by a contract employee," as part of a budget analysis, Maj. Earl Brown, a National Guard Bureau spokesman, said in the release.

The files contained names, social security numbers, home addresses and other personal identifiers from servicemen who served since October 2004. A Guard spokesman told the Army Times that although technically a breach, “it was more of a poor security practice.”

Officials confirmed that the leak was not related to massive Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach and don't believe that the information has been misused. The National Guard has set up a webpage offering identity protection advice and a toll free number for those affected.

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