Booz Allen Hamilton Admits Improper Data Storage Led to Data Breach

The US Government uses many companies as outside contractors to help fulfill its wide variety of needs. One of those contractors is Booz Allen Hamilton, who had contractors match up with military, intelligence, and government needs due to their high-level clearances. Unfortunately, it recently came to light that one of their employees downloaded a lot of personal information on other employees right out of the internal network for the company. 

How Did the Attack Occur?

In 2022, a former employee of Booz Allen Hamilton searched through the internal network of the company and downloaded a report full of employee information. The specific date of the attack was April 14, 2022. At the time, the company had approximately 27,000 employees, who now all have to worry about what could happen as a result of this data breach. 

What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?

When this former employee downloaded the employee report, he or she accessed quite a bit of personally identifiable information. The information includes: 

• US Government Security Level (including current security clearance status)
• Full names
• Salary
• Social security number
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Ethnicity
• Race

Combined, this information could become the basis of identity theft for any of the employees on that report. 

How Did They Admit to the Breach?

Booz Allen Hamilton released a notice stating their former employee accessed a report due to information that they did not store or protect adequately within their internal SharePoint access site. However, they did not go into more detail about what specific circumstances led to the discovery that this data was accessed. The company stated in the notice they only recently found out about the activity from this former staff member. Booz Allen Hamilton believes that this former employee has no intention to misuse any data gathered during the breach. However, that does not mean the information could not fall into the wrong hands. 

What Will Become of the Stolen Information?

At the time of this writing, nothing has shown up anywhere regarding information being shared or placed for sale. However, no one is sure what the former employee plans to do with the information or if he or she still has access to the information. There is no current information on whether this person will face any type of criminal charges. 

What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?

Any time data falls into the wrong hands, it is vital to ensure that steps are taken to protect it. In instances like this, there is more than enough information to worry about identity theft. Identity thieves need very few pieces of information to be able to mimic someone's identity online. The best way to protect against this type of problem is to use identity monitoring. That way, you get notified if any information shows up for sale or on the dark web. It is better to be safe, even if this former employee no longer has access to the data they downloaded.