Tag Archives: Office of Personnel Management

Officials State Hackers Stole 5.6 Million Fingerprints, More Than Previously Reported

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that 5.6 million fingerprints were stolen in April’s cyber attack, more than five times the amount the agency first reported.

The hackers were able to obtain fingerprints, social security numbers, names, addresses, health information, and financial data from millions of government employees. The OPM stated in June that personnel records of 4.2 million people had been compromised in the cyber attack. A month later, the agency announced a second attack that was targeting 21.5 million people and only 1.1 million fingerprints had been stolen.

“The fact that the number [of fingerprints breached] just increased by a factor of five is pretty mind-boggling,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, the chief technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology. “I’m surprised they didn’t have structures in place to determine the number of fingerprints compromised earlier during the investigation.”

The OPM tried to downplay the situation by stating that the ability to abuse fingerprint data was “currently limited.” The agency did warn that as technology improved there could be a higher chance of someone using their fingerprints as a guarantee of identity. Considering there are now security measures for unlocking smartphones and home security systems using a person’s fingerprints, that day may not be as far as the OPM states.

Investigations are continuing as officials are still trying to find who was responsible for the cyber attacks. Meanwhile, the OPM is still in the process of notifying everyone who had information stolen. According to the agency, they will provide free identity theft and fraud protection services to those who were affected by the cyber attack.

U.S. officials have blamed China for the OPM breach. China has continued to deny the attacks. The announcement comes during the second day that Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting the United States. Jinping is due to meet President Obama in Washington on Friday.

Entire National Security System Possibly Compromised by Hacking

A new report from Fox News shows that the entire U.S. national security system was likely undermined by a year-long hacking attack that was spotlighted by the revelations of 21.5 million Americans having their data stolen from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Experts who spoke with Fox say that the data taken is so sensitive that it could be used to blackmail leaders or those who could be elected to public office in the future.

“There may be people walking around with higher levels of clearance than they should have,” one expert told Fox. “I believe the entire national security apparatus is now at risk. It’s mind-boggling.”

“It’s the digital equivalent of Pearl Harbor,” another expert added. “Because people don’t see the carnage, they don’t recognize that this is the equivalent of an act of war. This is about espionage—Cold War tactics in the modern digital age.”

Also being revealed is that contractors to OPM that conducted background checks were hacked.  A firm named USIS who worked for Homeland Security was hacked in December 2014; Keypoint, who took over the USIS contract, was hacked in June 2015.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said that China is the leading suspect behind the massive, year-long hacking attack.

The report comes a day after OPM said they are working with the Defense Department to notify anyone impacted by the attack and provide them with identify-fraud protection services.  The contractor for the project will likely not be chosen until mid-August.

OPM plans to provide the free monitoring for those victimized by the hack for three years.