US Federal Government Suffers Major Data Breach

Recent news reports indicated that the U.S. Government suffered a major data breach that potentially impacted the employees of every federal agency.  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which handles security clearances and employee background checks, suffered a data breach potentially affecting more than 4 million individuals.

The cyber footprints of the attack resemble that of other attacks originating from the Chinese government, according to anonymous sources with the federal government.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a Senate Intelligence Committee member, commented on the breach in media reports saying, “yet another indication of a foreign power probing successfully and focusing on what appears to be data that would identify people with security clearances.”

OPM released a written statement on June 4, 2015 indicating the breach could potentially impact 4 million individuals, whose personally identifiable information was potentially compromised in this incident. www.opm.gov/cybersecurity/

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently became aware of a cybersecurity incident affecting its systems and data that may have compromised the personal information of current and former Federal employees.

OPM is offering affected individuals credit monitoring services as an attempt to mitigate the fallout from the data breach. It is uncertain to what extent this breach might put intelligence officials on foreign lands at risk. Additionally, the information could be used to identify key employees in order to use pressure or bribes. Employees who have large amounts of debt or have family members with medical ailments could be key targets of foreign nations attempting to exploit U.S. intelligence operations.