Leidos IT Breach Leaks Pentagon Documents, Bloomberg Reports
Hackers have breached Leidos Holding Inc., one of the US government’s most relied-upon IT services providers, resulting in leaked sensitive internal information, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Leidos recently discovered the breach and believes the documents were stolen during a past incident involving a Diligent Corp. system adopted by the Virginia-based company. Bloomberg’s anonymous source stated that Leidos is investigating the issue.
Stock Performance Affected
As a result of the leaked information news, the IT company’s shares dropped by more than 4% in after-trading hours, then witnessed a partial recovery. The Virginia-based company is known for operating with key US agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and NASA, in addition to several foreign agencies and commercial businesses.
As stated in a June 2023 filing in Massachusetts, Leidos utilized the Diligent Corp. System, intending to keep the documents related to its internal investigations.
Traces of the Past
Commenting on the incident, Leidos’ spokesperson stated, “We have confirmed that this stems from a previous incident affecting a third-party vendor for which all necessary notifications were made in 2023,” emphasizing that it did not have an impact on the company’s network or customers’ data. As for the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and NASA, the governmental agencies refrained from commenting on the leaked information.
A spokesperson for Diligent said that incident might be linked to an attack that affected one of its affiliate businesses, Steele Compliance Solutions. At the time of the breach, fewer than 15 customers were using the product, including Leidos.
“We promptly notified impacted customers, including Leidos, in November 2022 and took immediate corrective action to contain the incident.”
As per the filings, the set of documents was mainly robbed during two different data breaches of Diligent in 2022.
Final Thoughts
Leidos’ breach, resulting in leaked information, shows the growing threat of the weaponization of security infrastructure. Technologies have become the sole facilitator of bringing companies and, in certain cases, countries and governments to their knees, with one click of a button.
The incident also indicates the urgent need to take more robust actions in cybersecurity. Companies in general, and more specifically those handling very sensitive data, are now required to use high-security technologies and upgrade them at frequent intervals to assist in fighting with the latest highly sophisticated attacks.
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