U.S.PS reported on Monday that personal Data of hundreds of thousands of United States Postal Service Workers and customers have been compromised following a recent security breach.
The Washington Post reported that Chinese government hackers might have been the suspects in the cyber attack incident. However, the Chinese government denies the accusations of cyber theft and stresses that their law prohibits cyber crime.
The personal data of over 800,000 workers and retirees who receive their salaries from the USPS, including the postmaster general's were exposed by the breach.
Data taken includes individual's names, date of birth, addresses, Social Security numbers and terms of employment. Credit card data were not affected by the attack, as the hackers "did not appear to be interested in identity theft or credit card fraud."
"It is an unfortunate fact of life these days that every organization connected to the Internet is a constant target for cyber intrusion activity," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement.
"The United States Postal Service is no different. Fortunately, we have seen no evidence of malicious use of the compromised data and we are taking steps to help our employees protect against any potential misuse of their data," Donahoe added.
"The intrusion is limited in scope and all operations of the Postal Service are functioning normally," David Partenheimer, USPS media relations manager, wrote in a statement.
Aside from the employees, people who contacted the USPS Customer Care Center via telephone or e-mail from Jan.1 to Aug. 16 this year might also be compromised
The intrusion, which was discovered on September is currently being investigated by the FBI. Furthermore, the USPS has taken into action and improved the security of its information systems.
The news came as President Barack Obama arrived Monday for an economic summit In Beijing, meeting with China's President Xi Jinping for the first time, talking about environmental issued and human rights.
