The Coast Guard's personnel and pay system was taken offline Friday and will remain down until at least Feb. 19 while officials investigate a data breach that affected more than 1,100 members.
Coast Guard officials said Friday that the service's Direct Access system, which manages pay and personnel matters, including orders, was hacked Friday, exposing sensitive information such as bank routing numbers and direct deposit account information.
According to the service, a junior petty officer noticed odd activity in their pay account and reported it to Coast Guard Cyber Command, which took the system offline to safeguard all accounts.
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The breach, which occurred on a day that active-duty personnel received their paychecks, delayed payments to 1,135 members, according to a Coast Guard statement to Military.com.
The Coast Guard did not provide the name of the official who issued the statement by publication.
"The Coast Guard Personnel Service Center and Pay and Personnel Center are expediting pay to any impacted members and have begun processing offline payments," the statement said.
The service said the Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Cyber Command are leading "an exhaustive investigation" to determine the source of the breach and safeguard the systems.
The official added that the service would continue to provide updates to the workforce, including information on the service's efforts to address system vulnerabilities.
"If the investigation determines that any additional information was compromised, impacted members will be notified and updated," the statement read.
The Department of Government Efficiency, under the leadership of billionaire and senior Trump adviser Elon Musk, has been reviewing government systems and programs across federal agencies as it looks to cut what it considers wasteful spending.
DOGE has access to data at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Coast Guard. But the DHS did not respond to questions about DOGE activities at the department or within the Coast Guard, instead referring questions to the White House, which did not respond by publication.
In April, the Coast Guard Reserve was hit by a data breach that disclosed the home addresses of more than 7,500 members, as well as the names and employee identification numbers of 3,146 people.
That breach, reported by Military Times, was the result of an accidental distribution of the private information to personnel who had no reason or authority to receive it.
In other Coast Guard news, the service announced Friday its slate of acting leaders following the firing of the commandant, Adm. Linda Fagan, who was abruptly dismissed Jan. 21 by Homeland Security leadership for concerns over her leadership, border security, acquisitions and recruiting.
Since Fagan was dismissed, Adm. Kevin Lunday, the former vice commandant, has been serving as the service's acting commandant.
According to a Coast Guard-wide message, Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, the deputy commandant for operations, is now acting vice commandant; Vice Adm. Thomas Allan, deputy commandant for mission support, will serve as acting deputy commandant for operations; and Rear Adm. Michael Day, the former director of the Coast Guard's talent management transformation program integration office, is now acting deputy commandant for mission support.
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