A security breach at the Pentagon's official credit union exposed the personal and financial records of thousands of military members and their families to possible identity theft.
The Pentagon Federal Credit Union’s (PenFed) database was accessed by a malware-infested PC, Paul Roberts of the security firm Kaspersky Lab reported. The database includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers.
PenFed serves about 100,000 members in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. It offers mortgages, credit cards and loans to customers, and has $15 billion in assets.
The extent of the data breach is not yet known. Roberts reported last week that the attack was discovered Dec. 12 and that so far 514 New Hampshire residents have been affected.
In a letter mailed to customers, PenFed's executive vice president of operations, Roderick Mitchell, said, "We have no indication that your information has been misused." No PINs or passwords were accessed in the breach, Mitchell said.
PenFed reissued all credit and debit cards to members whose account information may have been obtained illegally.
