Hackers Steal Healthcare Payments, Data From Up to 46,000 US Veterans - Agency

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2020) Hackers stole personal data of 46,000 former US service members and used the information to divert government payments for veterans' medical services, the Veterans Administration (VA) said in a press release on Monday.

"The [VA] Financial Services Center (FSC) determined one of its online applications was accessed by unauthorized users to divert payments to community health care providers for the medical treatment of Veterans," the release said.

As a result, the FSC began alerting the affected individuals, including the next-of-kin of deceased veterans, of the potential risk to their personal information, and offered free credit monitoring services to those whose Social Security numbers may have been stolen, the release added.

Big data breaches so far this year include a hack that potentially affected more than 5 million customers of the Marriott Hotel chain in March and a June intrusion announced by Nintendo that compromised 300,000 user accounts, according to media reports.