46,000 Veterans and 13 Community Care Providers Affected by a VA Data Breach

  • By Dawna M. Roberts
  • Published: Sep 28, 2020
  • Last Updated: Mar 18, 2022

46,000 Veterans and 13 Community Care Providers Affected by a VA Data Breach

The Incident

Early last week, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) was breached by an unknown cybercriminal exposing personal information for more than 46,000 veterans. The breach occurred due to a vulnerability in a medical payment application used by 17,000 community care providers. 

Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.), wrote in a letter to Robert Wilkie, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on September 16, 2020, “Based on information currently available, it appears this cybersecurity incident was carried out by those able to find weaknesses in the way VA authenticates community care health care providers using veterans care agreements and processes payments for their services.” He goes on to say, “This most recent data breach is unacceptable. It also exposes the fact that VA has not taken the necessary steps to ensure oversight, accountability, and security of the vast financial, health, and other personal data it collects and processes to perform its critical services for America’s veterans. Incidents such as these, impact individual veteran’s lives as well as those who partner with VA to provide services to them. It is imperative VA take aggressive and decisive action to address this current incident and lay out a strategy to prevent such problems from arising in the future.”

Cyber attackers were able to divert an undisclosed number of payments meant for six of the 17,000 community care providers who use the system by using “social engineering techniques and exploiting authentication protocols.” The hacker breached thirteen community care providers, but only six of them actually lost funds. The VA plans to reimburse those providers for the lost payments.

The attackers accessed the customer engagement portal, which is one of 85 systems under a single authority to operate (ATO) managed by the VA’s Financial Services Center.

The personally identifiable information (PII) stolen on 46,000 veterans include details that could easily be used for identity theft or fraud. Social security numbers and financial data were stored in this system, along with names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails.

How the VA Responded

In a press release dated September 14, 2020, the VA confirms that the Financial Services Center took the application offline immediately and began an investigation. A Senate sub-committee pointed to a GAO report from last year, citing four recommendations to assess the damage and improve cybersecurity going forward for the VA and all other federal agencies. 

The Veterans Administration is alerting all the victims of this data breach, along with family members and next-of-kin for deceased veterans. They are also providing free credit monitoring services for those veterans whose social security numbers were exposed. Veterans can expect to receive additional information through the mail with instructions on protecting their personal data. The VA mentioned that if veterans do not receive a notification, their information was not included in the data breach.

 

About the Author
IDStrong Logo

Related Articles

Instagram Vulnerability Allowed Hackers Access to Control Your Phone

Security experts Check Point Research discovered a critical vulnerability while examining Instagra ... Read More

Alien Malware Infects More than 226 Mobile Apps and Steals Bank Data

As reported on September 24, 2020, by ZDNet and ThreatPost, a new strain of malware named “A ... Read More

Universal Health Systems Hit by Ransomware Attack

Universal Health Systems (UHS), a Fortune 500 company owning more than 400 hospitals across the co ... Read More

Exchange Server Bug Exposes a Big Risk to Hackers

Months after Microsoft released a patch to fix a serious flaw in MS Exchange Server, more than 61% ... Read More

Clients’ Bank Data Exposed in Blackbaud Ransomware Attack

Blackbaud software was victim to a ransomware attack last May, and new information suggests that c ... Read More

Latest Articles

What Are Pretexting Attacks: Scam Types and Security Tips?

What Are Pretexting Attacks: Scam Types and Security Tips?

Have you ever received a text from someone you do not know? Did you become alarmed by the message? Did the message contain information about you and the people you know?

What is a Time-based One-time Password (TOTP)?

What is a Time-based One-time Password (TOTP)?

Authentication is the process that verifies the user's identity to control access to resources, prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to the system, and record user activities (to hold them accountable for their activities).

Corporate Fraud: Detection, Prevention, and the Role of Corporate Fraud Attorneys

Corporate Fraud: Detection, Prevention, and the Role of Corporate Fraud Attorneys

The growing scale of organizations and the more opportunities to push the boundaries have led to an upsurge in corporate fraud in recent years.

Featured Articles

How to Buy a House with Bad Credit

How to Buy a House with Bad Credit

Buying your own home is the American Dream, but it might seem out of reach to those with bad credit. However, the good news is, if your credit is less than perfect, you do still have options and in most cases, can still buy a home.

How Secure Is Your Password? Tips to Improve Your Password Security

How Secure Is Your Password? Tips to Improve Your Password Security

Any good IT article on computers and network security will address the importance of strong, secure passwords. However, the challenge of good passwords is that most people have a hard time remembering them, so they use simple or obvious ones that pose a security risk.

Top 10 Senior Scams and How to Prevent Them

Top 10 Senior Scams and How to Prevent Them

Senior scams are becoming a major epidemic for two reasons. First, seniors often have a lot of money in the bank from a life of working hard and saving.

Notice

By proceeding with this scan, you agree to let IDStrong run a Free Scan of supplied parameters of your personal information and provide free preliminary findings in compliance with our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice. You consent to us using your provided information to complete the Free Scan and compare it against our records and breach databases or sources to provide your Free preliminary findings report.

Rest assured: IDStrong will not share your information with third parties or store your information beyond what is required to perform your scan and share your results.

Free Identity Threat Scan
Instantly Check if Your Personal Information is Exposed
All fields below are required
Please enter first name
Please enter last name
Please enter a city
Please select a state
Please enter an age
Please enter an email address
Close