Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, believes the Education Department is under risk of a cyber breach, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.
Chaffetz told an event at the Brookings Institute in Washington that the potential cyber attack could affect half of the nation’s population, Scott Maucione reports.
He cited security issues with the department’s information systems and pointed to a problem with the diversity of contractors that handle student information, according to the report.
Chaffetz told legislators the department’s database that contains personal information of individuals that apply for student loans are susceptible to cyber attacks, the station reports.
“Here, we’re talking about more than $1 trillion in student loans and data on more than 100 million Americans, and it’s not secure by any definition,†he said.
Chaffetz hascalled on the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the security status of the department’s data centers in November, Maucione reports.