USPS Hack Could Come From China

Earlier today, it was announced that the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) computer networks experienced a breach some time in September, and it remains to be seen as to the exact moment when the actual attack (or attacks) actually happened. According to the Washington Post, they claim that the government of China should be held responsible for the hack – which is some pretty heavy accusation leveled at such an entity, being one of the largest economies in the world to boot. Right now, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are the ones leading the charge when it comes to investigating this particular breach, and they have remained mum on who they believe ought to be held responsible.

In fact, the slew of USPS staff who happen to number more than 800,000 employees have been said to be affected by the breach, and personal as well as private information such as names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of employment and other information were obtained. This breach is said to be irrelevant to USPS customers since it does not affect them at all, although certain customer information such as names, email addresses and phone numbers were also obtained, only if you have contacted the Postal Service Customer Care Center via phone or email between January 1st and August 16th.

USPS stated, “At this time, we do not believe that potentially affected customers need to take any action as a result of this incident.” At least one remedial step has been taken in the event of this breach – all USPS employees were given a year of free credit monitoring.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Hacking, usps