The US State Department has issued a warning to approximately 400 passport applicants in the Washington D.C. area of a security breach in one of their databases. The information that was compromised by a State Department employee and a Postal Service employee could be sold to thieves to commit credit card fraud.
In response to the security violation, the State Department is offering the applicants free credit monitoring for a year as well as assuming liability for any charges which are incurred as a result of illegal activity. This black mark for the State Department comes on the heels of additional breaches in which State officials were accused of reviewing the passport records for popular US figureheads.
Because of the increase in "hacking" of the State Department systems, lead officials have ordered a complete revamp of their internal security systems.
