Work currently for the federal government? Retired from your position? Or maybe you just applied for a job with the feds. All these statuses are currently being flagged in one of the largest government data breaches in history. When news of the breach originally broke earlier this year, it was listed a few million employees and former federal employees may be affected. That number has since more than doubled. Why? The government did not recover and report the more recent factor.
4.2 million current, retired and former employees were affected, but then the true numbers surfaced. Another 19 million people who applied for a job with the federal government over the past 15 years are also now affected. Not just them, more than 1 million of those applicants have to inform their associates and spouses they may be affected, just by association and mention in the background check.
Katherine Archuleta, the now former director of the Office of Personnel Management resigned on Friday, following pressure from the abundant breach that has destroyed trust in the office.
Reportedly, the director visited President Obama and advised she was going to step down and open a path for new leadership. Chinese hackers are being blamed for the hacks, but that has not been confirmed by U.S. officials at this point. Obama and his administration are struggling to contain the damage this breach has done. It swiped the social security numbers, home addresses, health histories, security clearance levels, fingerprint scans and financial histories of all affected.
Representatives want other agencies to review their security formulas to protect data. It is likely if one system was breached, others could have been attacked as well.
The breach has exposed the U.S. government’s vulnerable and lackadaisical methods on protecting the data of their employees. Obama’s spokesman, John Earnest, is trying to ease the flow of distrust populating rapidly. He told the NY Times the administration is reviewing the assessment of their “cybersecurity measures” and they are looking to “accelerate” reforms as quickly as possible.
The promise for change does little for those affected. While 22 million records were accessed, the Obama administration believes the damages are more specific to 3.6 million individuals, as their information was accessible in both databases breached.
The background checks being accessed are worrisome to many protected federal employees. Information for the feds includes significant information about one’s life, loved ones, associates and more. Their entire story is now on review and accessed by hackers, and the end point of that access is not clear. The level of concern is real and individuals who were impacted were, reportedly, notified.
While the information has not been misused at this point and time, there is a chance it could be later down the line. For those concerned or affected, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has set-up a webpage explaining the details of the hacks, and what people can do to protect their personal information. Review the FAQ page here.