Pentagon Begins Alerting Possibly Millions of Service Members About Personnel Database Breach
The Pentagon has begun notifying millions of current and former service members about a data breach at the Defense Manpower Data Center. Hackers accessed unencrypted records, including Social Security numbers, for approximately nine months between October 2025 and mid-July 2026. Officials have not identified the attackers or confirmed if the data has been misused, though they are offering credit monitoring services.
- ▪The breach affected over 3 million individuals, including 2.76 million living and 294,000 deceased service members.
- ▪Hackers had access to the Defense Manpower Data Center from October 2025 to mid-July 2026.
- ▪The compromised records were stored unencrypted, exposing sensitive data such as Social Security numbers.
- ▪The Pentagon is offering 12 months of credit monitoring to affected individuals.
- ▪There is no evidence that this incident is related to the recent FBI data breach.
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| Original publisher | Gizmodo |
| Canonical URL | https://gizmodo.com/pentagon-begins-alerting-possibly-millions-of-service-members-about-personnel-database-breach-2000819961 |
| Publication time | Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:46:58 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-10-01T01:52:07.223Z |
| Last seen | 2026-10-01T01:52:07.223Z |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Just days after news broke of a massive breach at the FBI, the Pentagon is issuing warnings about a similar breach that resulted in hackers stealing data on millions of current and former service members. TechCrunch reported on Wednesday that a user uploaded a breach notification letter to Reddit showing that their social security number, as well as other data, had been accessed by hackers who broke into the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). That’s one of the main record-keeping systems for the military. CNN and the Federal News Network had both previously reported that the DMDC hack could affect over 3 million people (2.76 million alive, 294,000 deceased), though the Pentagon hadn’t started directly alerting service members.
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