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U.S. officials mistakenly shared potentially confidential White House information with over 11,200 federal employees, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post. The data, which included White House floor plans and details of a proposed armored door for the visitor center, was shared via a Google Drive folder by employees of the General Services Administration (GSA). The breach prompted a cybersecurity incident report and investigation.
According to a report by Axios,that the GSA Office of Inspector General discovered the error during an ongoing audit. While most of the documents were unclassified, nine out of the fifteen files were marked as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), which means they were sensitive but not classified.
The incident dates back to 2021 when a management employee accidentally changed the sharing settings on the Google Drive folder. This allowed all GSA staff to access and even edit some of the files, which also contained sensitive financial information.
The breach occurred during the transition from former President Joe Biden's term into President Donald Trump's second administration. The GSA has since restricted access to the documents and identified the owners of the files.