By Ryan Nobles, Frank Thorp V and Zoë Richards -
NBC News
Personal information of "hundreds" of congressmen and other government workers in the capital was exposed Tuesday following a "massive data breach" that occurred through the Washington, DC health insurance marketplace.
House Administrative Director Catherine L. Szpindor said in a statement Wednesday that Capitol Police and the FBI alerted her to the data breach at
DC Health Link
.
[The White House backs a bipartisan bill that allows Biden to ban TikTok and regulate foreign technologies]
“Currently, I do not know the magnitude and scope of the leak, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has informed me that
account data and (personal identification data) have been stolen from hundreds of congressmen and staff members of the House (Lower)
,” Szpindor said.
"I expect to have access to the affected list throughout the day and will notify you directly if your information has been compromised," he said.
White House backs bipartisan bill that plans to ban the use of TikTok
March 8, 202300:27
Szpindor added that it did not appear that lawmakers were "the specific target of the attack" on DC Health Link.
The leak also affected the offices of the Senate
.
The leaked data "includes full names, enrollment date (in health insurance), relationship to the insured (self, partner, child) and email address, but no other personally identifiable information." .
Out of an “excess of caution,” Szpindor said, congressmen were suggested to protect or freeze their credit information with the three largest credit card companies in the country: Equifax, Experian and Transunion.