US Air Force Probes Potential SharePoint-Linked Privacy Breach

The US Air Force is investigating a “privacy-related issue” that may have exposed personally identifiable and protected health information, according to a notice reportedly issued by the Air Force Personnel Center’s IT division.

The internal memo, circulated among personnel this week, warned that all Air Force SharePoint instances would be taken offline as a precaution, and that Microsoft Teams and Power BI dashboards, both integrated with SharePoint, could also be temporarily disabled. Restoration of access could take up to two weeks, the notice said.

In a LinkedIn post, Hawaii-based Paul Garcia, while sharing the memo publicly, wrote:

“Did you see this wake-up call?” wrote Garcia. “The United States Air Force just had to shut down SharePoint and Teams service-wide after a PII/PHI breach. Mission files, dashboards, collaboration tools unavailable.”

“This is a symptom of much larger issues. The problems are escalating, and every week the mission suffers from DoD middle managements inaction. We’re beating ourselves trapped in sunk costs and vendor lock-in.”

In a statement to The Register, an Air Force spokesperson confirmed that the service is aware of “a privacy-related issue” but declined to specify whether SharePoint or Teams access has been restricted. Meanwhile, some users have reported they are still able to access SharePoint systems.

Microsoft told reporters it has “nothing to share at this time”. It did not say whether the investigation is linked to previously disclosed vulnerabilities in SharePoint that were widely exploited earlier this year. In past campaigns, attackers targeted unpatched on-premises SharePoint servers across hundreds of organizations, raising concerns about possible exposure within government networks.

The Pentagon has also faced scrutiny over its reliance on foreign-based support staff in parts of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure—an issue that earlier prompted internal reviews and policy changes.

If confirmed, the breach could disrupt operations by limiting access to widely used collaboration tools while potentially exposing sensitive data. The Air Force has not provided a timeline for concluding its investigation or disclosing the scope of the incident.