According to a senior U.S. defense official, a server belonging to the U.S. Department of Defense was left exposed for the past two weeks, which allowed internal emails to be accessed.
A misconfiguration with the server hosting the Microsoft Azure government cloud allowed the server to be accessed with a password. That means anyone with internet access could access the mailbox’s data if they knew the server’s IP address and were utilizing a web browser.
The server contained military emails amounting to three terabytes, many of which were linked to the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), a military unit that conducts special operations.
The emails inside the server contain personal information and look to date back years, according to the report.
For instance, one of the unprotected files contained a completed SF-86 questionnaire, a form filled out by government employees who are trying to obtain a security clearance. The form requires information including the applicant’s address, Social Security number, and personal information about people the applicant knows.
According to the report, none of the data hosted on the server that was exposed appears to be classified. The exposed server was secured on Monday afternoon, the day after TechCrunch reached out to the Pentagon.
Ken McGraw, U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman, said, “We confirm at this point is no one hacked U.S. Special Operations Command’s information system.”
The U.S. military’s Special Operations Command is investigating a tip that it is leaking a hoard of unclassified email data on the internet. The tip came from a cybersecurity researcher.
SOCOM initiates an investigation into issues with Cloud service
On Tuesday, the SOCOM “initiated an investigation into information we were provided about a potential issue with the command’s Cloud service,” said spokesman Ken McGraw.
“The only other information we can confirm at this point is no one has hacked U.S. Special Operations Command’s information systems,” said McGraw.
The blunder left the server without a password. This allowed anyone with internet access to locate sensitive data using a web browser. According to TechCrunch, Anurag Sen, a security researcher, made the discovery.
The United States military’s Special Operations Command says it is investigating a cybersecurity researcher’s report that the command was leaking a cache of unclassified email data on the internet.
Monday, the command “initiated an investigation into information we were provided about a potential issue with the command’s Cloud service,” according to SOCOM spokesperson Ken McGraw in a Tuesday email.
“The only other information we can confirm at this point is no one has hacked U.S. Special Operations Command’s information systems,” said McGraw.
