U.S. Office Of Personnel Management Announces 5.6 Million Fingerprints Of Federal Employees And Security Dossiers Were Allegedly Stolen By Hackers
The cybersecurity breaches has gotten worse at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as the number of fingerprints reportedly stolen from the agency has increased to 5.6 million from the previous data announced over the summer with 1.1 million stolen fingerprints.
The agency announced on Wednesday that the latest number includes "the theft of the Social Security numbers and addresses of more than 21 million former and current government employees," as reported by The Washington Post on the same day.
"The fact that the number [of fingerprints breached] just increased by a factor of five is pretty mind-boggling," says Center for Democracy & Technology chief technologist Joseph Lorenzo Hall. "I'm surprised they didn't have structures in place to determine the number of fingerprints compromised earlier during the investigation."
The pronouncement was revealed a few days before China President Xin Jinping meets with US President Barrack Obama to tackle about limiting cyberespionage.
The New York Times noted on the same day that American intelligence agencies have reportedly pointed China for the attack on the US government agency.
"Federal experts believe that, as of now, the ability to misuse fingerprint data is limited," OPM said in a dispatch. The agency added that it "could change over time as technology evolves."
"If, in the future, new means are developed to misuse the fingerprint data, the government will provide additional information to individuals whose fingerprints may have been stolen in this breach."
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska slams the agency for releasing updates during Pope Francis' visit in Washington.
"Today's blatant news dump is the clearest sign yet that the administration still acts like the OPM hack is a PR crisis instead of a national security threat," says Sasse.
US Representative for Utah Jason Chaffetz expresses his disappointment on the agency.
"OPM keeps getting it wrong," says Chaffetz. " I have zero confidence in OPM's competence and ability to manage this crisis."
In addition, OPM spokesman Sam Schumach reveals that the agency found out about the new set of compromised fingerprints just recently.
"Yesterday, we began informing members of Congress, as well as the OPM Inspector General, of these newly identified archived records, and disclosed that this would change the fingerprint number previously reported," says Schumach.
