WASHINGTON—The U.S. Postal Service has been hit by a data breach that could impact more than 800,000 of its employees and some customers.
The Washington Post reported that the Chinese government is believed to be behind the attack.
The USPS released a statement that explained the breach may have compromised personally identifiable information about employees, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, beginning and end dates of employment, emergency contact information and other information.
The data heist, USPS explained, also compromised call center data for customers who contacted the Postal Service Customer Care Center with an inquiry by phone or e-mail between Jan. 1, 2014, and Aug. 16.
The Postal Service was breached in September and first reported the intrusion in a classified briefing to Congress on Oct. 22, according to published reports.
The USPS statement explained that Postal Service transactional revenue systems in Post Offices as well as on usps.com where customers pay for services with credit and debit cards were not affected by the breach.
“There is no evidence that any customer credit card information from retail or online purchases . . . was compromised,” said spokesperson David Partenheimer.
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