Sensitive information related to the United States Air Force has been found exposed publicly Attack.Databreach on the internet , allowing anyone with a web connection to peruse them without authorisation and no need for a password . The discovery Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability was made by security researchers at MacKeeper who said that they had found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability gigabytes of files on an internet-connected backup drive that was not password-protected : The most shocking document was a spreadsheet of open investigations that included the name , rank , location , and a detailed description of the accusations . The investigations range from discrimination and sexual harassment to more serious claims . One example is an investigation into a Major General who is accused of accepting $ 50k a year from a sports commission that was supposedly funneled into the National Guard . As ZDNet reports , the names and addresses , ranks , and social security numbers of more than 4000 US Air Force officers were included in the stash of personal information . Further documents included phone numbers and contact information for workers and their spouses . Clearly some of the details exposed Attack.Databreach through the security lapse would be of value to foreign intelligence agencies and criminal gangs , and could lead to blackmail attempts or identity theft . What we don ’ t know is how long the information has been accessible Attack.Databreach online , and we also do not know if anyone other than the security researchers had managed to stumble across Attack.Databreach the exposed information . But the truth of the matter is that we shouldn ’ t ever have to find ourselves in a question to ask such questions . Whenever you decide to store information on the internet , particularly sensitive data , you should be doing your utmost to ensure that you have minimised the risk of it falling into the wrong hands . That means always keeping your computer patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability and running an up-to-date anti-virus , using encryption , enabling passwords and ensuring that the password chosen is a strong one , turning on additional authentication checks such as two-step verification and restricting the range of trusted IP addresses from where users can login from