US FBI and Pentagon suffer massive data breaches exposing personal health and security records

A hacking collective known as ShinyHunters obtained between two and three terabytes of FBI data, revealing applicants' medical histories, psychiatric evaluations and test results such as electrocardiograms and allergy information. At the same time, the Pentagon's Defense Manpower Data Center suffered a breach discovered in July that compromised Social Security numbers, occupational specialties and other personal details of up to four million current and former military personnel; the system stored at least 60 million records in fiscal year 2024 and was not encrypted.

Both agencies have launched investigations; the FBI declined comment, while the Pentagon reported no evidence of data misuse and pledged to strengthen cybersecurity. Cybersecurity consultant Eric O’Neill warned that adversarial nations, particularly Russia, are likely to seek the leaked information. These incidents expose vulnerabilities in U.S. government personnel systems and raise concerns about potential exploitation by foreign actors.