Hackers have accessed sensitive personal information of more than three million people linked to the United States military after breaking into a Pentagon computer system.
The US Department of Defense said the breach affected about 2.76 million living people and another 294,000 people who have died.
The information was stored in a system run by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), which keeps records for serving and former soldiers, civilian workers, contractors, retirees and their families. In total, the center holds more than 60 million records.
According to defense officials, the hackers were able to see names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, contact details and in some cases information about people’s jobs in the military. The data was not encrypted.
The unauthorized access started in October 2025 and continued for about nine months before the Pentagon discovered it on 16 July 2026. Officials said a small number of unauthorized users used a weak point in a file-sharing system to get into the server.
Once the problem was found, the Pentagon said it quickly fixed the vulnerability and started its security response.
The breach was first reported by Military Times last week and was confirmed by the Pentagon on Monday. Officials said there is no evidence yet that the stolen information has been used to commit fraud or to harm national security, but the exposure of job details and Social Security numbers has raised serious concerns.
The Pentagon is now contacting affected people and offering them 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity protection through a company called IDX.
The incident comes as the FBI is also investigating a separate breach involving its jobs website.
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