WASHINGTON – House leaders called Friday for an "immediate and comprehensive assessment" of congressional cybersecurity policies, a day after an embarrassing data breach led to the disclosure of details of confidential ethics investigations of lawmakers.

Revelations of the mostly preliminary inquiries by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct – also known as the Ethics Committee – and a panel that refers cases to it shook the chamber Thursday.

Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., went to the House floor to announce that a confidential weekly report of the committee from July had leaked out in a case of "cyber-hacking."

A committee statement said that its security was breached through "peer to peer file sharing software" used by a junior employee working from home. The employee was fired.

The July report contains a summary of the committee's work at the time, but Lofgren said no inferences should be made about anyone whose name is mentioned.

The Washington Post reported that more than 30 lawmakers and a few staff members were under scrutiny, including nearly half the members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

The previously disclosed inquiry involves lawmakers who steered appropriations to clients of a now-defunct lobbying firm and received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients.

The names included three lawmakers previously identified in the inquiry: the chairman of the defense subcommittee, John Murtha, D-Pa.; and Reps. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and James Moran, D-Va.

The Washington Post,

The Associated Press