Savannah River Site employees may have again been impacted by a cybersecurity incident that potentially compromised federal employee data for Department of Energy workers.
The hackers were believed to be based in China, according to The Associated Press.
Officials were not able to confirm if SRS employees were impacted in the recent incident, but a letter written by DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz states the U.S. Office of Personnel Management recently became aware of an incident affecting its systems and data.
In October 2013, Savannah River Site employees were affected by a cyber identity theft incident that included approximately 104,000 Department of Energy past and present federal employees.
The most recent breach may have exposed the personal information of current and former federal employees.
In response, the office has partnered with Homeland Security, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team and the FBI to determine the impact.
Officials are notifying approximately 4 million individuals whose Personally Identifiable Information may have been compromised. The notifications will be sent beginning June 8 and continue through June 19 by email and U.S. mail.
In order to mitigate the risk of fraud and identity theft, the management office will offer affected individuals credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance through CSID, a company that specializes in identity theft protection and fraud resolution.
The 18-month membership includes credit report access, credit monitoring, identity theft insurance and recovery services and is available immediately at no cost to affected individuals identified, Moniz said.
Employees whose information was affected will receive a notification directly from CSID.
"This incident reminds us all of the seriousness of the cyber threats we face and the importance of vigilance in protecting our systems and data," Moniz said.
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University.