In a shocking revelation, officials from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have confirmed that the massive data breach that was detected last month could have affected many more people than initially expected. According to USA Today , the OPM Data breach is showing all signs of a breach of epic proportions. Initial estimates put the number of federal employees affected by the breach to be well over 21 million. This is over five times the initial numbers that were given out by the OPM. Last month, the OPM had put the number of employees affected by the data breach to be around 4.2 million.
According to BBC News , people who have been affected by the OPM Data Breach include government job applicants, federal contractors, and over a million of their partners. When initially discovered last month, the hack was largely blamed on Chinese hackers.
Meanwhile, OPM officials have added that they believe the data breach could have leaked out Social Security numbers into the hands of the hackers. The most interesting thing about the data breach is the fact that data from over 1.8 million individuals who were co-applicants or the spouses of the 19.7 million applicants for background investigations were leaked as well. OPM officials have, in the meantime, released a statement which reassured that there have been no signs of any misuse of the information stolen from their systems.
The announcement from OPM about the data breach has resulted in several people calling for the resignation of Katherine Archuleta, the Director of OPM. They have even demanded that OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour resign as well. The most prominent call for resignations has come from House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who, last month, called for the resignations.
“As I’ve said since June 16, after the Oversight Committee held the first hearing on this disastrous data breach, Director Archuleta and CIO Donna Seymour need to resign or be removed,” Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Thursday.
“Since at least 2007, OPM leadership has been on notice about the vulnerabilities to its network and cybersecurity policies and practices. Director Archuleta and Ms. Seymour consciously ignored the warnings and failed to correct these weaknesses. Their negligence has now put the personal and sensitive information of 21.5 million Americans into the hands of our adversaries. Such incompetence is inexcusable. Again, I call upon President Obama to remove Director Archuleta and Ms. Seymour immediately.”
Meanwhile, officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the hack. While a Chinese angle is highly suspected, no official source has put the blame of these attacks on Chinese hackers. The Chinese government too denies any involvement in the OPM Data Breach.
[Image Via Energy.gov]
