United States – Department of Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) informed affected users on Monday of a data breach that resulted in the exposure of 46,000 veterans’ personal information. The incident stemmed from unauthorized users accessing an application within the Financial Service Center (FSC) to steal payment away from community health care providers. In a statement, the VA said malicious actors used “social engineering techniques” and exploited “authentication protocols” to gain access to the system. Recent additional information that has come to light indicates that 17,000 community care providers may also have been affected.