Bureau of Indian Affairs Warns 20,000 Tribal Members of Possible Data Breach

The Bureau of Indian Affairs recently notified more than 20,000 members of Montana’s Crow and Northern Cheyenne Tribes their personal information may have been compromised.

Tribal members’ unencrypted names, addresses, birthdates and tribal enrollment information were on an external hard drive stolen from a bureau vehicle last month, a bureau spokeswoman confirmed to NBC KULR-8.

In a letter to tribal members, BIA Director Walter Loudermilk wrote he was confident the hard drive wasn’t accessed. The Big Horn County sheriff’s office will investigate the incident.