How Anonymous stole US government data

Fresh details have been released related to the US Government data that was stolen by hacking group Anonymous.

According to the reports, data for more than 4,200 employees was compromised during this hack but fortunately, the hackers were shut down within 90 minutes of detecting the intrusion.

At first, the government wasn’t clear on how the hackers got into the system and managed to steal the data. But Census Bureau director John H. Thompson has now revealed how they did it: "It appears the database was compromised through a configuration setting that allowed the attackers to gain access to the four files posted to the hacker’s site".

The database was the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, which is hosted on an externally facing IT system that contains non-confidential information, according to Thompson. The database is being used by the Census Bureau to collect the audit reporting packages from state and local governments, Indian tribes expending Federal awards and non-profit organizations.

Fortunately, the hackers weren’t able to get inside the Census Bureau’s internal systems to breach any sensitive data.

As of now, the database will remain offline to complete the investigation to ensure the systems integrity in the future.

The attack was revealed by the White House in June when they admitted that the hackers had breached the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and compromised sensitive information of roughly 4 million staff.

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