Unknown hackers compromised a number of the U.S. Navy’s computers and gained access to sensitive information, including names and social security numbers, of more than one hundred thousand current and former sailors, officials said Wednesday.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services has informed the Navy that at least one of the company’s laptops used by their employees, under a naval contract, was compromised. HP first notified the Navy on Oct. 22.
Since then, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has continued the investigation. They uncovered on Tuesday that the information of 134,386 current and former sailors’ information had been accessed.
Related: Could One Person Take Down the Internet?
“The Navy takes this incident extremely seriously — this is a matter of trust for our sailors,” said Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke in a statement released Wednesday. “We are in the early stages of investigating and are working quickly to identify and take care of those affected by this breach.”
Related: One-Quarter of 21 Million OPM Hack Victims Have Been Notified
Navy officials said they plan to continue the investigation and will provide further details to those affected soon. They are reviewing credit monitoring service options for all those involved.
“At this stage of the investigation, there is no evidence to suggest misuse of the information that was compromised,” the Navy said in a statement.
