News / Foreign Policy

US: 4 million current, former employees hit by data breach

Thursday, 04 June 2015 10:42 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 04 June 2015 11:27 PM ]

Approximately four million former and current federal employees may have had personally identifiable information stolen as part of a massive cyber theft announced by the US administration on Thursday.

The US government has admitted hackers may have accessed the personal data of four million current and former federal employees.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday it had launched an investigation and would hold the culprits accountable who penetrated deep into the data held by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The FBI said in a statement that "we take all potential threats to public and private sector systems seriously, and will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace."

The OPM said in a statement that it "detected a cyber-intrusion affecting its information technology (IT) systems and data" in April.

"The intrusion predated the adoption of the tougher security controls," OPM said.

“Certainly, OPM is a high value target,” said OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour. “We have a lot of information about people, and that is something that our adversaries want.”

The OPM, which conducts background checks for security clearances, declined to comment on who was behind the hack.

Some US officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, claimed that hackers from China are behind the attack, according to a Washington Post report.

One official familiar with the matter called it as one of the largest thefts of US government data ever done.

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