A significant cybersecurity breach has hit Leidos Holdings Inc., one of the U.S. government’s top IT service providers. Hackers have managed to steal and leak internal documents from the company, raising alarms about the security of sensitive government information.
Leidos, which works closely with the Pentagon and other federal agencies, recently discovered that some of its private documents had been taken and posted online. The company thinks these files were stolen during an earlier breach of a system they used, which was run by another company called Diligent Corp. It seems like this hack is part of that previous Diligent breach that occurred in 2022.
This IT service handles contracts worth billions for various government departments, including U.S. Defense, Homeland Security, and even NASA. In fact, most of Leidos’ business comes from the U.S. government, which makes up about 87% of their income.
While we don’t know exactly what’s in the leaked documents, this incident has people worried about how well outside contractors are protecting government data. Experts in cybersecurity say that breaches like this can cause big problems, from losing money to damaging reputations and even facing legal troubles.
Right now, Leidos is looking into how bad the breach is and what effects it might have. They haven’t said much publicly about what was in the leaked files or what they’re doing to fix the situation. Although there is no one from official sources confirming this news, Bloomberg covered this news first.
The hackers behind this attack have hinted that they plan to sell the stolen information, which only adds to the concerns about how this sensitive data might be misused.
This whole situation brings up important questions about how secure government contractors really are. It shows that we might need better ways to protect important information, especially since these companies play such a big role in keeping the country safe.
Leidos isn’t a new player in this field. They started in 2013 and have become a key provider of IT service solutions for national security. In fact, in 2022, they were the top federal IT service contractor, with almost $4 billion in government contracts.
It’s a clear reminder of how hard it is to keep sensitive information safe in today’s digital world. Recently, the world faced a major global IT outage that affected various sectors including healthcare, airlines and banking.
We can expect Leidos and government agencies to work together closely in the coming weeks. They’ll need to figure out just how bad this breach was and find ways to better defend against future cyber-attacks.
The threat of cyber-attacks on organizations handling critical information is always there, hence it needs a proper solution as digital threats keep changing and evolving.