US Postal Service hit by cyber-attack; US suspects China

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The United States Postal Service (USPS) stated that it has been the victim of “a cyber-security intrusion” exposing the employment records of more than 800,000 employees. The FBI is investigating the source of the cyber-attack, which appears to have originated from China.

Reportedly, there has been “no evidence” that any customer credit card information was exposed, but the cyber attack compromised some call center data and may have swept up names, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses.

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The Washington Post is reporting that China is suspected to be the primary responsible actor for this cyber-attack against the USA Postal Service. The People’s Republic of China is considered among the world’s best players at intruding foreign government computer systems, and the agency was first alerted of suspicious activity in the middle of September.

The cyber-attack breached into the office of the Postal Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service [iHLS Newdesk: its law enforcement arm, G. A.], and the Postal Service Office of the Inspector General.

“We have recently implemented additional security measures designed to improve the security of our information systems, including certain actions recently, that caused certain systems to be off-line,” said spokesman of USPS, David Partenheimer.