Pentagon personnel database breach exposes data on nearly 3 million people

A Pentagon personnel system run by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) was accessed without authorisation, exposing sensitive records of military and civilian personnel. 1 2 A defense official told ABC News the breach affected 2.76 million living people and another 294,000 who are deceased; TechCrunch, citing CNN and Federal News Network, put the figures at about 2.8 million and close to 300,000. 1 2 The unauthorised access ran from October 2025 to July 2026, when DMDC said it discovered and fixed the vulnerability. 1 2

The exposed data included Social Security numbers and details of jobs held; a notification shared on Reddit, described by TechCrunch, also lists names, dates of birth, sex and race, and says the records were unencrypted. 1 2 Defense officials said they have found no evidence the data has been misused; ABC reports they are offering identity protection and credit monitoring, while TechCrunch notes the department did not say how it reached that conclusion. 1 2 DMDC holds more than 60 million records on troops, civilians, contractors, retirees and family members, and manages identity credentials for access to Pentagon systems and bases. 1 2

Both outlets place the breach alongside a recent FBI breach attributed to the ShinyHunters group, which has said it will not release the stolen data; the identities of the Pentagon hackers are not known. 1 2 TechCrunch compares the incident with the 2015 Office of Personnel Management breach, broadly attributed to China, which affected more than 22 million government employees. 2