According to the Surgeon General of the United States, the personal information of current, former and retired employees of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and their dependents has been compromised.

These 6,600 individuals are employed to provide medical services to underserved populations and to assist with disease control, and the safety of drugs and medical devices, and include physicians, surgeons, pharmacists, dentists, nurses and therapists.

The incident is still under investigation, but it is being reported that the system compromised was a website portal that was used to process certain human relations functions and included information relating to payroll, leave, attendance and other functions. Affected employees are being urged to obtain a credit report and to be watchful of a potential misuse of their information.