Pierluigi Paganini December 15, 2023

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) announced that it has suffered a data breach impacting more than 45,000 individuals.

In November, the hacktivist group SiegedSec claimed responsibility for the hack of The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and leaked stolen human resources data.

SiegedSec is a threat actor that last year carried out multiple attacks against U.S. organizations, especially U.S. municipalities.

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that performs work in each of DOE’s strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science, and environment. INL is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development.

The mission of the Laboratory is to discover, demonstrate and secure innovative nuclear energy solutions, other clean energy options, and critical infrastructure.

The INL complex is on an 890-square-mile (2,310 km²) complex in the high desert of eastern Idaho and employs approximately 5,700 people.

The hacktivists group announced on BreachForums and on its Telegram Channel that it had gained access to Idaho National Laboratory and hundreds of thousands of users, employees, and citizen data.

The hackers claimed that the stolen data included:

• full name
• date of birth
• email address
• phone number
• social security number
• address
• employment info
• lots lots more!

Now the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) confirmed the data breach and announced that the security incident impacted more than 45,000 individuals. Threat actors breached the company’s cloud-based Oracle HCM HR management platform in November.

The organization notified the impacted individuals on 12/12/2023 due to the ongoing investigation by federal agencies including the Department of Energy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

“On November 20, 2023, INL was informed that a cyber data breach occurred on November 19, 2023, at an off-site data center that housed information on INL employees, former employees, spouses, and dependents. The event did not impact INL’s own network, or other networks or databases used by employees, lab customers or other contractors.” reads the data breach notification letter shared with the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

“We can confirm that multiple forms of sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) including names, social security numbers, salary information and banking details were exposed for many individuals. Some individuals only had their names and dates of birth compromised. The compromised information contained payroll data for employees, former employees, and retirees that was current as of June 1, 2023. PII that may have been included within that data set includes the following: [PII Data Set]”

The data breach impacted 45,047 current and former employees, along with their dependents and spouses.

The letter confirmed that sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) was compromised, including names, social security numbers, salary information, and banking details.

Idaho National Laboratory is offering the impacted individuals a complimentary access to Experian IdentityWorksSM for 12 months.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, INL)