Data Security, Breach

EPA: Publicly available information part of data leak

The United States Capitol building is seen at sunrise in Washington

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has disclosed that data leaked by threat actor USDoD on BreachForums over the weekend involved information that had already been made available to the public as part of the agency's efforts to provide "a comprehensive picture of environmental impacts," Cybernews reports.

No further details regarding the exposed information were provided by the EPA amid ongoing investigation. However, an examination of the leaked data, which USDoD claimed to affect 8.5 million individuals, revealed legitimate information, such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, company names, and job titles, dating back to 2016. USDoD also laid claim to having two other EPA database files containing global critical infrastructure contact information.

Such a compromise by USDoD, which previously targeted Interpol, Europol, NATO, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training, Deloitte, and Airbus, should prompt significant security improvements across U.S. government agencies, noted a BreachForums user commenting on USDoD's leak post.

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