The FBI has cut ties with an Accenture contractor after a missed software patch let attackers into a system holding employee data.
The bureau removed the contractor from its work on Monday, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. A senior FBI official said the contractor had failed to apply a known security fix, and that the unpatched system led directly to the breach. The incident exposed personal data belonging to thousands of bureau staff. Neither Reuters nor the FBI has identified which system was affected or named the individual contractor involved.
Government agencies lean heavily on contractors like Accenture to maintain IT infrastructure, and that arrangement spreads risk across a chain the agency doesn't fully control. When the weak link is a skipped patch, the fallout lands on the agency's own staff, not the contractor's bottom line. For an agency whose job is investigating breaches, getting breached over basic patch hygiene is a bad look.
Unpatched systems remain the most boring, most common cause of breaches anywhere - turns out that holds even inside the FBI's own contractor network.