Hackers have leaked internal documents stolen from Leidos Holdings Inc., a major U.S. government IT services provider, according to a source familiar with the situation. The company recently discovered the issue and believes the documents were taken during a previously disclosed breach of a third-party system it used.
Leidos, which serves clients including the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security and NASA, is investigating the matter. The company’s stock initially fell more than 4% in after-hours trading on the news before recovering most of its losses.
Leidos Leak Believed to Stem From Third-Party Breach
Leidos, formed in 2013 through the acquisition of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s IT business, was the largest federal IT contractor in the 2022 fiscal year, with $3.98 billion in contract obligations, according to Bloomberg Government data.
The leaked documents are believed to have originated from a breach of a Diligent Corp. subsidiary, Steele Compliance Solutions. Leidos used Diligent’s system to store information from internal investigations, as noted in a June 2023 Massachusetts filing.
While some purportedly leaked files were visible on a cybercrime forum, their authenticity could not be independently verified. Though the original report does not directly mention the name of the cybercrime forum, it appears to be BreachForums.
A Diligent spokesperson confirmed that the leak appears to stem from a 2022 hack affecting Steele Compliance Solutions, which it acquired in 2021. The incident impacted fewer than 15 customers, including Leidos, which was initially notified in November 2022.
“We promptly notified impacted customers and took immediate corrective action to contain the incident,” the Diligent spokesperson said.
Leidos maintains that the breach did not affect its network or any sensitive customer data. “We have confirmed that this stems from a previous incident affecting a third-party vendor for which all necessary notifications were made in 2023,” a Leidos spokesperson stated.
Leidos Leak Impact and Implications
The company’s extensive government contracts and the nature of the leaked documents raise concerns about potential security implications. However, the full extent of the breach and the sensitivity of the leaked information remain unclear.
The company has sought to reassure its customers, including the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and NASA, that the breach did not affect its network or sensitive customer data. According to the Bloomberg article, the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and NASA did not yet responded to requests for comments on the incident.
In another incident that occurred more than a decade ago, hackers had stolen over 24,000 files from a defense contractor associated with the Pentagon. While the Pentagon did not mention what files had been stolen due to the level of secrecy associated with its content, former Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III admitted during a speech that it involved some of the U.S.’s “most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies.”
