The hacking group Anonymous has taken credit for the intrusion, which Thompson said hit the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, “which is housed on an externally facing IT system that contains non-confidential information, such as names of the person submitting the information, organization addresses and phone numbers, site user names, etc”.
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Security and data stewardship are integral to the Census Bureau mission.
No sensitive data was taken in a recent hack of the U.S. Census Bureau, the agency’s director said in a blog post Friday. “While our IT forensics investigation continues, I want to assure you that at this time every indication is that the breach was limited to this database, and that it did not include personally identifiable information provided by people responding to our censuses and surveys”. “We will remain vigilant in continuing to take every necessary precaution to protect all information”.
It was originally unclear how the hackers managed to steal the data.
Anonymous hackers have swiped databases from servers used by the US Census Bureau, and dumped their contents online.
The hack was mounted by a group operating under the Anonymous banner on July 24. The leaked files also include a database of usernames and hashed passwords, which appear to have been run through the MD5 or an Oracle DES algorithms.
According to CBS, the hacktivists group’s stand off against the trade negotiations is generally bewildering. TTP is a proposed trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other countries around the Pacific Rim and is aimed at boosting investment opportunities and lowering trade barriers. Among the many oppositions to the twin agreements is the way they have been drawn up in secret, with Anonymous being vocal in its opposition.
The agency continues to investigate the breach while also scanning for vulnerabilities.
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Some weeks ago, the United States Office of Personal Management (OPM) confirmed that its security systems where breached and that around 4 million employee information was compromised, as opposed to the initial estimates of more than 21 million, as earlier reported by the Inquisitr. The administration of President Barrack Obama will not officially place the blame on China.
