The personal information of 237,000 current and former US government employees has been exposed in a data breach. The data breach hit systems for processing TRANServe transit benefits that reimburse federal government employees for some commuting costs. It was exposed by the US Transportation Department (USDOT). It is not clear if any of the personal information had been used for criminal purposes.
The breach impacted 114,000 current employees and 123,000 former employees.
In an email to Congress, USDOT notified that its initial investigation of the data breach has "isolated the breach to certain systems at the department used for administrative functions, such as employee transit benefits processing."
The breach did not affect any transportation safety systems, USDOT said, while also not taking any names about who might be responsible for the hack.
The department is investigating the breach and has frozen access to the transit benefit system until it has been secured and restored, it said. The maximum benefit allowance is $280 per month for federal employee mass transit commuting costs.
US government employees and agencies have been targets of hackers in the past too.
