Army investigates suspected database breach

An Army database that contains personal information about nearly 1,600 soldiers may have been penetrated by unauthorized users, Army officials have announced.

Soldiers who registered with, or participated in, the Army-sponsored Operation Tribute to Freedom program during the past five years may be affected by the security breach, Army officials said March 10. The service is notifying those soldiers about the issue through e-mail messages and letters.

The information that may have been breached includes the service members' names, e-mail messages, phone numbers, home addresses, awards received, ranks, gender, ethnicity, and dates the soldiers deployed and returned from their deployment, Army officials said.

Only information that was provided at the time of registration was potentially compromised, officials said. The Criminal Investigation Command is investigating how the password-protected, secure Web-based information was penetrated.

Operation Tribute to Freedom  lets soldiers share their stories with the public. The program’s speakers service helps event coordinators find the soldiers for events and the service members speak about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.