(FiveNation.com)- After last week’s “significant” breach of the DC Health Link marketplace, Senate staffers were told that the sensitive information from the hack has been posted to a dark web forum popular with hackers, NBC News reported.
Senate Intelligence Committee staffers said in an email to Senate offices that they “learned” that the information stolen has appeared on one of the “big hacker” websites, “easily accessible” to those who know how to find it.
The data posted online includes names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers, as well as which insurance plan staffers have and how much they pay for it, according to the Intelligence Committee email.
DC Health Link administers plans for members of Congress and some staffers on Capitol Hill, as well as other individuals from the Washington DC area.
According to NBC News, before the breach was made public, someone on a dark web forum popular with hackers claimed to have access to the DC Health Link data of a handful of users and offered to sell it.
This week, another user of the site made the files public to those who have access to the forum. NBC News reported that the database includes information for over 65,000 people, including over a thousand who work either for the House or the Senate. One Senate office confirmed to NBC News that the information about several of its employees found in the database is accurate.
In an interview with Just the News’s John Solomon on Tuesday, House Administration Committee Chair Byran Steil said that while it is not yet known who was behind the breach, foreign hackers are suspected.
Steil said until the ongoing forensic audit is completed, “we don’t have full answers.” However, Steil added that it is unmistakable that “nefarious international actors” and “criminal gangs” steal this kind of data to make money “every single day.”
The breach is being investigated by the FBI and the Capitol Police.
