US Investigations Services (USIS), which is based at Falls Church, Virginia, said that the intrusion is probably aimed at stealing personal information of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees. Experts who have studied the attack believe that "it has all the markings of a state-sponsored attack." As a result, the USIS hired a computer forensics company to find out "the precise nature and extent of any unlawful entry into our network."
An investigation is launched in order to determine the number of affected personal information files and how to tighten up the security of the company's systems.
The DHS told all its employees to watch for any suspicious actions on their financial accounts. Likewise, they are advised to be more discerning when they receive requests for personal or financial data. Any unusual activity should be reported promptly.
Since the government is studying the scope of the damage, the DHS decided to suspend working with USIS. "We are working closely with federal law enforcement authorities and have retained an independent computer forensics investigations firm to determine the precise nature and extent of any unlawful entry into our network," USIS said.
During the past months, the USIS has been under major scrutiny by Congress because of its performance in the background checks on Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower, and Aaron Alexis. The latter is a military contractor employee who has been charged with killing 12 people in the middle of the Navy Yard shootings which occurred in September 2013.
In the US, government workers with security clearances are subjected to background checks. Out of the 4.9 million workers, more than two thirds are handled by private contractors while the USIS handles almost half. Most of the investigations are under contracts with the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of Personnel Management.
The latter had also suspended work with USIS and added that the officials are skeptical that the breach has affected non-DHS employees.
"We are working collaboratively with OPM and DHS to resolve this matter quickly and look forward to resuming service on all our contracts with them as soon as possible," USIS said.
Hackers would always love to target the US government and its contractors. Their main objective is to gather sensitive data which would range from employee information contracts to the designs of weapons.
The USIS is the federal government's largest commercial provider of background checks. The company has more than 5,700 employees. Along with providing services in all the states and territories of the US, the company also has contracts from abroad.
