Data Of Four Million Federal Employees Affected By Data Breach

A data breach in the personnel office of the US government has affected the data of around four million federal employees. The attack on the network security of the Office of Personnel Management was being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities are suspecting hackers from China as the ones responsible for the cyber attack. The FBI revealed that the agency is working with their partners in the investigation. They take potential threats to systems in both the public and private sector seriously. It added that it will continue its investigation and hold individuals posing a threat in cyberspace accountable.

No statements were released by the consulate of China in San Francisco in connection to the data breach.

Investigators said the data breach was initially detected in April, and is unconnected to another attack discovered last year. Chinese hackers attempted to steal information when they were able to enter the servers of the US government in May 2014.

Hacking has been an issue between the two countries as both have accused each other of attempting to steal information by breaking into each other’s servers. Charges were filed against five Chinese military hackers by the US Justice Department in May 2014. They were charged of hacking into US companies and stealing data, an allegation denied by China.

Data Breach Affects Four Million Federal Employees - image credit: en.wikipedia.com

The latest data breach comes as government agencies have become the target of numerous cyber attacks in recent months. These attacks were suspected to have originated from other countries. A security breach involving an unclassified network utilized by the White House was said to have been the work of hackers from Russia.

Four websites of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were compromised last year, and hackers from the Chinese government were suspected to be behind the attack. Chinese government hackers were also suspected of being behind the attack on the US Postal Service, which compromised the data of over 800,000 employees.

The Office of Personnel Management is the human resource department of the federal government. It is tasked in conducting most of the background checks for security clearances within the government. The agency revealed that the intrusion was initially detected in April, and it has increased its network security since then. The OPM said tougher security controls were adopted due to the intrusion.

The OPM said it is planning to inform around four million individuals of the possibility that personally identifiable information may have been compromised due to the data breach. The agency added that additional effects of the breach may emerge in the future.

Director Katherine Archuleta of the OPM released a statement indicating that the agency is taking their responsibility of securing information stored in their system seriously, and it is working with its partners in identifying opportunities of increasing security for the data they are storing.

Posted by George Daniels on Friday June 05 2015, 10:04 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0