Pentagon Breach Exposes Data of 3 Million Military and Civilian Personnel, Raising National Security Concerns

ABC News revealed a widespread breach targeting the Pentagon's employee database and sensitive information concerning nearly 3 million people.

A defense official stated that the breach affected 2.76 million living individuals, in addition to 294,000 deceased persons.

The official noted that the volume and sensitivity of the exposed information could raise national security concerns, particularly as the files included details about the duties performed by military personnel and civilian employees.

He explained that "a system belonging to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) experienced unauthorized access to personally identifiable information by a small number of unauthorized users between October 2025 and July 2026. Once discovered, the center immediately addressed the vulnerability."

The Defense Manpower Data Center is one of the primary repositories for personnel records at the Pentagon, holding information on active duty and reserve military members, civilian employees, contractors, retirees, veterans, and family members of military personnel. The agency manages more than 60 million individual records. "Military Times" was the first to report the breach last week.

According to the defense official, the unauthorized access extended from October 2025 until July, when the center detected the vulnerability and updated the affected system, adding that there is currently no evidence of misuse of any of the exposed data.

Defense officials said they have not yet found evidence of misuse of the exposed information and are offering identity protection and credit monitoring resources.

News of the Pentagon breach came at a time when the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a notice to employees on Friday detailing its response to a breach of the FBIJobs.gov portal.

Sources told ABC News that a threat actor claimed they would publish data including names of FBI employees, home addresses, personal and work contact information, social security numbers, dates of birth, and emergency contact information, and that the bureau is operating under the assumption that every employee's personal information has been compromised.

However, in a statement to "The New York Times" and "404 Media" on Monday, the hacking group "Shiny Hunters" claimed it would not publish the data as previously stated.

The statement read: "From the beginning of this event, we clearly and diligently emphasized that this is not extortion, not ransom, and not financially motivated. It was entirely a marketing campaign to protect our business and actively combat misinformation. Had we issued this statement normally, our words and intentions would not have received such wide attention." ABC News has not independently verified the group's claims.

Source: ABC News