White House Continued To Cover Up Extent Of OPM Hack
[guest post by Dana]
In a report from today’s Wall St. Journal, we learn that the OPM hack of U.S. data may have impacted upwards of 18 million social security numbers and that the agency misrepresented the breach. This is much different than what obfuscating White House officials originally led us to believe.
Obama administration officials avoided immediately disclosing the severity of the government employee data hack by defining it as two distinct breaches, according to people familiar with the matter, in an incident that underscores the tensions within the government over what officials have described as one of the worst breaches of U.S. data.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation suspect China was behind the hack of Office of Personnel Management databases, and those hackers accessed not only personnel files but security clearance forms, which contain information that foreign intelligence agencies could use to target espionage operations, according to officials. Chinese officials have said they weren’t involved.
The administration disclosed the breach of personnel files on June 4 but not the security clearance theft. The security theft was disclosed a week later, but investigators probing the theft already knew about it.
OPM Director Katherine Archuleta is investigating the matter:
[S]he believes 4.2 million personnel records of current and former government employees were stolen as part of one breach, but she said the estimates were much less precise on the hack of background check investigations that took place over a number of years.
“It is my understanding that the 18 million [number] refers to a preliminary, unverified and approximate number of unique Social Security numbers in the background investigations data,” she said. “It is a number I am not comfortable with.”
After a heated three-hour hearing earlier this month regarding the hack – when the number being reported was only at 4 million – Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) called for Archuleta and her chief information officer to resign given that “OPM was warned repeatedly by the agency’s inspector general to make computer security upgrades, but took too long”. It’s not like anyone will actually be fired over this egregious breach. And in spite of President Obama has making his priorities known, the White House claims he is weighing out his options in response to the hack.
On a side note: Earlier this month, Mona Charen, who writes for National Review, announced that she had received a letter from the OPM informing her that her information had been compromised. She shared her favorite part of the letter with readers
“. . . nothing in this letter should be construed as OPM or the U.S. Government accepting liability for any of the matters covered by this letter or for any other purpose.”
But of course.
–Dana
:
Hello.
Dana (86e864) — 6/24/2015 @ 1:18 pmI don’t work for the government…. but I was informed this week that my background check data (clearance for current job) may have been compromised.
Gee, thanks, President dipshit.
kj (d61752) — 6/24/2015 @ 1:52 pmIs there anything short of Obama’s next Hawaiian vacation the White House isn’t covering up?
ropelight (173355) — 6/24/2015 @ 3:44 pmWhat I want to know is, did Hillary Clinton have to fill out a form 86 to become Secretary of State?
If so, then our geopolitical foes may have a heap of information on her and Bill which they can use to blackmail a President Clinton. To forestall this, shouldn’t she have to release her Form 86 to the public?
If not, well that’s a pretty scandalous case of rules only applying to the little people. Or maybe the bigwigs get to keep their info off of computers. Come to think of it, could anyone lower down in the power structure get a security clearance when their spouse is taking private jet rides with not one but two pedophile billionaires, and partying with underage prostitutes?
David Pittelli (b77425) — 6/24/2015 @ 4:08 pmTellingly, Eric Holder managed to keep all this suppressed until he got outa Dodge.
elissa (3c18c0) — 6/24/2015 @ 4:20 pmSomeday there’s going to be a doozy of a class action suit about this, and I bet the government cites “Sovereign Immunity” to get it dismissed.
Steven Den Beste (99cfa1) — 6/24/2015 @ 4:21 pmMaster-servant immunity. You can’t sue your boss as a general rule. Workmens compensation and employment discrimination are statutory exceptions.
nk (dbc370) — 6/24/2015 @ 4:38 pmInteresting question: can a class action lawsuit be brought against a Federal Gov’t entity?
meanwhile, when do they start blaming Pres BushII by name?
seeRpea (181740) — 6/24/2015 @ 4:48 pmnot all the people involved were employees of the Feds.
seeRpea (181740) — 6/24/2015 @ 5:03 pmThey can’t make Archuleta resign because she is a “wise Hispanic.” That was her qualification for the appointment.
President Barack Obama’s re-election team has chosen Katherine Archuleta of Denver to be his national political director. The campaign told CNN that Archuleta will also be the first Latina to hold that position “on a major presidential campaign.”
Archuleta is currently the chief of staff to Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis.
Before her work with Labor Secretary Solis Archuleta was a big force in Colorado’s hispanic community, working as an aide for Mayor Federico Pena–the first, and so far the only, Hispanic mayor of Denver. When President Clinton appointed Pena to Secretary of Transportation, he named Archuleta chief of staff in 1996 and 1997. Later in 1997 when Pena became the new Secretary of Energy, Archuleta was named senior policy advisor.
She was also a senior advisor to then-Mayor John Hickenlooper, Denver’s lead city planner for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and executive director for the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation.
See? Lots of data security experience. I’ll bet she can use a computer, even.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 6/24/2015 @ 5:12 pmWith such stellar qualifications, how was she passed over for Secretary of State?
nk (dbc370) — 6/24/2015 @ 5:24 pmand then all the dogs jumped off the suicide bridge the end
happyfeet (831175) — 6/24/2015 @ 5:35 pmall of the current distractions out there in Medialand are an attempt to deflect hard analysis and accountability demanded of the people who are in charge. The wholly ineffectual, incompetent, passive, flaccid Obama Administration. The Left extrapolates the actions of one demented racist white male and paints all of white America with the same brush. You can’t be much more hateful and dishonest than that. But hate and dishonesty are in the Left’s DNA.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/24/2015 @ 6:04 pmthere’s a lot of that going around:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/24/watchdog-irs-erased-backups-after-loss-tea-party-emails/
narciso (ee1f88) — 6/24/2015 @ 7:40 pmHeaddesk. When facepalm doesn’t capture how gobsmackingly wrong you are.
NickM (22278f) — 6/25/2015 @ 12:39 amI think the OPM data breach is not getting nearly enough attention. I understand why the administration and compliant media are attempting to bury it. But why is it so little commented on here and other blogs? This Daily Beast article has a click bait headline, but the ramifications of our enemies or foreign spies knowing exactly where weak links may be in the personal lives of government workers who might be compromisable is worrisome indeed. Whether it was incompetence or treachery by the OPM gatekeepers the national security implications of this breach are enormous.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/24/hackers-stole-secrets-of-u-s-government-workers-sex-lives.html
elissa (c3113f) — 6/25/2015 @ 12:18 pmelissa:
I can’t speak for everyone but this story doesn’t interest me. First there was Wikileaks and Snowden, and then it was Obama’s widespread NSA surveillance — the result of which I believe he used for his re-election campaign and for other partisan goals. Thus, to me, it isn’t a question of “Who is extorting or blackmailing our government, its leaders, lobbyists and assorted hangers-on?”; it’s “Who isn’t?”
DRJ (1dff03) — 6/25/2015 @ 12:30 pmPerhaps, elissa, it’s all become so utterly wearying and seemingly futile. People are tired of the endless scandals, corruption, incompetency and illegitimacy of this administration as well as no one ever being held accountable.
But you’re right, this should be front page news everywhere: 18 million people along with the sheer level of utter incompetency and negligence of duty that allowed this to occur should not be allowed to get lost in the other minutiae of the day. Not even to mention the fact that this mess occurred on Obama’s watch.
And none of that begins to address the staggering reality of possible destruction to the country that may come as a result of so much compromised and stolen data.
Dana (86e864) — 6/25/2015 @ 12:32 pmDana–I’d love to see a master spy novelist like John le Carré have a go at crafting an international thriller based on the OPM data breach.
elissa (c3113f) — 6/25/2015 @ 1:05 pmElissa – it’s a good question. This scandal ought to have the power to move people’s opinions.
As a technology guy, I’m appalled.
As a person who knows people whose information was lost, I’m angry on their behalf – and, in some cases, potentially afraid for them.
As a citizen, I’m outraged. *This* data should not have been this vulnerable, full stop.
And yet other than demanding a Congressional inquiry and public shaming of those who were responsible, what recourse do I have?
aphrael (69b4f7) — 6/25/2015 @ 1:16 pm