The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a Department of Energy facility. One would assume that it would have premier security. Unfortunately, the laboratory facility has had a data breach:

“…The assault appeared “to be part of a coordinated attempt to gain access to computer networks at numerous laboratories and other institutions across the country,” lab director Thom Mason said in a memo to the 4,200 employees at the Department of Energy facility.

Oak Ridge officials would not identify the other institutions affected by the breach. But they said hackers may have infiltrated a database of names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of every lab visitor between 1990 and 2004.”

link: Hackers Get Data of Federal Lab Visitors

link: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

One would think that, at such a national facility where there is a focus on security, phishing attacks would not succeed. Unfortunately, that would be wrong. Some hackers are exceptionally sophisticated.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: hackers, data breach, privacy, security, identity theft, oak ridge national laboratory, department of energy, phishing