Thousands of people who used an online registration for an August 2001 Defense Department conference on health-care fraud are at risk, says the Pentagon.

Warning letters saying names, social security numbers, credit card numbers, employer identification and other personal information were entered into a computer database by conference attendees, states Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith, quoted by the Washington Post.

"The conference data were stored on a computer server, which hackers broke into early last month," it says. "The server contained information on more than 14,000 people who enrolled for the fraud conference, held in San Diego, and for other meetings."

Routine monitoring discovered "unusual activity" on a computer server at the Tricare Management Activity, the Pentagon said, although medical records of Tricare enrollees weren't compromised, according to Smith.

Information "contained in the accessed files varied, and investigators do not know the intent of the crime or if any of the information will be misused," says the Washington Post.

Also See:
Washington Post - Conference Attendees' Personal Data May Be at Risk, May 10, 2006