United States Coast Guard Suffers a Data Breach Delaying Payments of Over 1000 Members

• The United States Coast Guard (USCG) posted a notification about suffering a data breach.
• As a result, payments to 1,135 employees have been delayed until February 19, 2025. 
• The incident came to light when screenshots of internal emails from service personnel were shared online.

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) portal confirmed being impacted by a data breach that delayed 1,135 employees’ payment disbursal. The USCG is the full-lifecycle military Human Resource and payroll solution using off-the-shelf products from Oracle and PeopleSoft. 

The sign in page read that ‘Direct Access’ will remain unavailable from February 13 to February 19, 2025. Direct Access is the payroll system for the USCG. 

The USCG website released a statement saying that the Pay and Personnel Center (PPC) was receiving several phone calls and emails reporting that Direct Access was not accessible. 

Users were directed to the concerned department and asked to submit a screenshot of the error code with their IP address. 

The statement confirmed that due to the ongoing security breach, the personnel were unable to offer solutions to regain connectivity to Direct Access. Among the errors observed by the team were 404 error codes, authentication errors, DA links timing out, and a spinning circle. 

Personnel and payroll systems were taken offline as a result of the USCG data breach. Service members’ direct deposit account routing information was impacted in the security incident.

It is not clear if the 1,135 members will receive their delayed bi-weekly pay after February 19, as noted on Direct Access, since the impact of the data breach remains unpredictable. No cybercriminal has claimed an attack on the USCG at the time of posting.

The Coast Guard Investigative Service is looking into the impact of the data breach, and the Coast Guard Personnel Service Center and the PPC are expediting pay to impacted members. Only select representatives who are part of the investigative team have limited access to the systems.

The U.S. Naval Institute stated that screenshots of two emails from a senior service member were posted online, bringing the incident to light. Members were asked not to continue posting screenshots and assured they would be sent an all-hands email shortly. 

It is speculated that not all members’ pay has been delayed. Moreover, the personal banking information of over 1,000 Coast Guard members was allegedly compromised.

The Coast Guard had suffered a data breach previously. The incident was confirmed on April 18, 2024, stating that Personal Identifiable Information (PII) was impacted about three months before on January 24.

Payment and payroll systems are a constant target of cybercriminals because they give out credit cards and other sensitive information.