Amid furlough, military teleworker emails colleagues’ SSNs to his insecure Webmail account

A Hill Air Force Base staffer emailed sensitive information to a personal account to finish work at home – “a move that violated base, Air Force and Department of Defense policy.”

As a result, hundreds of fellow employees had their personal data exposed.

“It is unclear whether the employee’s attempt to finish work at home had anything to do with government-mandated furloughs of civilian Defense Department employees. Nearly 11,000 civilian employees at Hill were required to take six unpaid furlough days beginning July 8, as the Pentagon deals with spending cuts for the rest of the fiscal year. The furlough mandates essentially gave base employees one less day during the week to complete their regular workload,” Standard-Examiner reports.

John C. Cullinane, director of Hill’s 75th Force Support Squadron, sent a letter to affected personnel stating, “While there is no excuse for violating this policy, I do want to assure you this was not a malicious act.”

Hill officials said an investigation did not indicate that any of the information had been used fraudulently.

SC Magazine reports that the unidentified employee's supervisor has “dealt with the violation,” according to a Hill Air Force Base spokesperson.

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