The Pentagon's Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) is notifying more than 3 million people — nearly 2.8 million living individuals and 294,000 deceased — that "a small number of unauthorized users" accessed their sensitive personal data between October 2025 and July 2026 after exploiting a vulnerability in its file-sharing systems, according to breach notification letters shared by affected personnel and Pentagon officials. Stolen data varies by individual and includes Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth, contact information, sex, race and military personnel information. DMDC stores more than 60 million military, civilian, contractor, family member, retiree and veteran records used to authorise benefits and entitlements for the Department of Defence. Pentagon officials told Federal News Network the centre initiated privacy and cybersecurity incident response upon discovery and is offering 12 months of free credit monitoring through IDX, with enrolment open until 19 August 2027. Attribution and the full scope of the intrusion are not established.

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