OPM: 21.5 Million People Affected By Background Check Breach

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced on Thursday that sensitive information including Social Security numbers for 21.5 million people was among the data lost in a breach of its background investigation database.

An investigation into this and a separate breach -- that one involving personnel information on 4.2 million people -- concluded that the two were "separate but related," OPM said.

The new numbers expanding the scope of the hack come one day after FBI Director James Comey called the hack an "enormous breach" to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, saying "millions and millions" of government records were stolen, including his own.

The investigation into the breaches concluded that the second breach, which targeted background investigation records kept by OPM, included Social Security numbers, information on family members and other contacts, as well as health and criminal records.

OPM: 21.5 Million People Affected By Background Check Breach

So here we have it. One of the largest data breaches in the government.

The data released includes names, social security numbers, addresses, DOB's, among other things.

So is this a ploy to now get rid of SS#'s and replace them with the good ole chip?

Pushing of the mark of the beast?

Digital profiles and cashless society?

a reply to: xmaddness

So is this a ploy to now get rid of SS#'s and replace them with the good ole chip?

Pushing of the mark of the beast?

No, I'd day this is proof that the billions we spend on security doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot.

I don't see the push for a "chip" any time soon.

a reply to: xmaddness

So is this a ploy to now get rid of SS#'s and replace them with the good ole chip?
Pushing of the mark of the beast?
Digital profiles and cashless society?

Which would be just as easy to hack ? Probably easier. If you have the time , you can hack any computer system in the world.The key to security is not to prevent hacking , but make it so difficult that the "normal" hacker would give up.And response is second. There should be firewalls on routers , switches , local systems that detect a threat and can shut it down immediately.I know , I have a system at home for this and I am just a geek . However , I guess it is like any other thing with government , it all comes down to MONEY and BUDGET.Surely they have port monitoring , filters , snoopers ,etc. Seems as if someone in IS there was asleep at the wheel.

i watched some of the hearing on this and the level, of poor management, and incompetence is really amazing. the
IG inspector, the year before told OPM that there stuff is so bad that they should just shut it all down.

this was so badly managed and poorly funded for so long its amazing it didnt happen a long time ago.


-GhostINShell

So now what happens?

Are people supposed to flood the SS Administration with requests to change numbers?

Big Government always fails.

Big money spent on "security" and still thefts.



Big Government Bureaucrats

a reply to: xuenchen

maybe we should get rid of SSN, and all get a "CID" Citizen IDentifier.... and it can be a random 64 bit string

originally posted by: Ghostinshell
a reply to: xuenchen

maybe we should get rid of SSN, and all get a "CID" Citizen IDentifier.... and it can be a random 64 bit string

They'll screw that up worse.

originally posted by: xmaddness
So is this a ploy to now get rid of SS#'s and replace them with the good ole chip?

SSN's are very insecure, they aren't randomly assigned but rather are assigned sequentially. It depends on the states population and the year the person in question was born but the rates to automatically figure out a persons SSN vary between 0.1% success and 90% success with the success rate being higher if they live in a smaller state or are younger. They need to be done away with.

arstechnica.com...

This article was published several years ago on the matter. They don't outline precisely how to do it but for the people who know how to do these things it's actually rather straightforward.

a reply to: xmaddness

jeff Schlanger used to be the ceo untill 2014 so this hack happened on his watch not his fall guy eric hess.

some information on Mr Schlanger

Jeffrey Schlanger serves as Chief of Staff. He most recently served as President and CEO of KeyPoint Government Solutions, a private investigation firm previously known as Kroll Government Services. While at Kroll, Mr. Schlanger worked with now-Police Commissioner William J. Bratton and Michael G. Cherkasky, former CEO of Marsh, Inc., and Chair of the New York State Commission on Public Integrity, as the monitoring team for the Los Angeles Police Department.

the global regulatory and financial crime, risk and compliance firm today announced the appointment of Jeff Schlanger as Managing Director & President of EXIGER Advisory, EXIGER’s specialized consulting division, which executes the firm’s monitoring assignments and delivers sustainable governance, risk management and regulatory compliance consulting services to financial institutions and multinational corporations. - See more at: newyork.citybizlist.com...

Prior to the DA’s office, Mr. Schlanger was President and CEO of KeyPoint Government Solutions, a government consulting firm previously part of Kroll, then known as Kroll Government Services. While at KeyPoint, Jeff worked alongside EXIGER Executive Chairman Michael Cherkasky as the Deputy Monitor for HSBC - See more at: newyork.citybizlist.com...

who is Exiger?

EXIGER is a global regulatory and financial crime, risk and compliance firm. EXIGER arms financial institutions and multinational corporations with the practical advice and solutions they need to prevent compliance breaches, respond to risk, remediate major issues and monitor ongoing business activities. EXIGER was initially launched to lead the court-appointed monitorship of HSBC – the largest, most comprehensive monitorship to date. EXIGER works with regulators in the US, UK and around the world to evaluate the effectiveness of HSBC’s money-laundering and sanctions compliance controls across its 6,300 offices in 75 countries around the world - See more at: newyork.citybizlist.com...

what that means for us?

the CEO of the company that contained all federal employees information that got hacked is now in charge of protecting one of the top 3 largest banks in the world. Things are about to get interesting!

This is bullsh$t! They can't be this incompetent, something else s afoot, like control of the internet.

It shouldn't be up to us the individual to secure our identity. They are only ever stolen for financial purposes, and no matter what anyone will tell you, the institute (bank, irs, or whatever) that fell for it is ALWAYS liable. Not you the individual.

They are this incompetent , I've got a friend that was sitting fat dumb in happy gs14 it system security.

As he settled into the job learned tge inns and outs he transfered to a much lower pay grade doing basic it work.

When asked why he told me "I am not going to be the fall guy for the government's incompetence. "

a reply to: xmaddness

Unfortunately, I'm one the 21 million. I have an ADP/IT-1 clearance as a government contractor. I don't even want to think about the implications!