The U.S. Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently confirmed a serious breach: hackers gained access to over 150,000 emails and attachments by exploiting vulnerabilities in a third-party vendor’s software. The emails included personally identifiable information (PII), internal communications, and potentially sensitive operational data. The breach happened through Microsoft Outlook—something most organizations use every day—and it wasn’t the result of a zero-day exploit or sophisticated attack. It came down to weak controls and poor monitoring.
What actually went wrong? The OCC used an external provider for their Outlook services, and that provider failed to block malicious traffic from a known compromised IP address. The breach went undetected for far too long, giving the attackers plenty of time to access messages and attachments. This isn’t just a government problem. It’s a reminder that even large, regulated agencies with security policies in place are still vulnerable when vendors aren’t held accountable and basic safeguards aren’t working as they should.
The takeaway here is simple: you don’t need to be a federal agency to be a target. And your emails don’t need to contain state secrets to be valuable to attackers. If your organization relies on third-party software, stores customer or employee PII, sends sensitive data over email, or hasn’t had an external risk assessment in the last year, you’re likely exposed in ways you may not realize.
That’s where we come in. At CyberData Pros, we help organizations figure out where the gaps are—starting with a clear, practical risk assessment. We look at your vendors, your email setup, your detection capabilities, and your incident response plans. We don’t just hand you a list of problems—we walk through what’s risky, what’s urgent, and what actions make the most impact. If you don’t have someone watching your environment for suspicious activity, we’ll help you set that up. If you’re not sure how your vendors are being managed or what kind of data they can access, we’ll sort that out too.
At CyberData Pros, we help organizations like yours find the gaps before attackers do. If you're not sure how you'd detect or respond to a breach like this, contact us to get started. We offer free consultations and fast turnarounds on assessments so you’re not left waiting.