Hack attack: OPM breach could affect up to 18 million Americans
The hack of the Office of Personnel Management, the largest ever breach of federal employee information, may have been four times larger than the government originally acknowledged, .
Although officials initially announced that the breach had impacted around 4.2 million federal workers, an internal memo circulated the day of the attack almost three weeks ago stated that around 18 million people may have been affected, including individuals who applied for positions with the government but were not hired, .
This information was not made public because it was based on 鈥渧ery raw numbers鈥�, an unnamed source told The same source said that investigators are taking 鈥渕any forensic steps鈥� to determine exactly how many people had their personal data stolen.
While OPM officials have not acknowledged that the breach has affected more than the initially indicated 4.2 million people, they did reveal that a second breach compromised the security clearance background checks of millions of military and intelligence community personnel.
It was also revealed that hackers had access to the OPM system for a year before they were discovered, stealing information on federal workers, government contractors, prospective government employees, and all friends, family, and acquaintances named for background checks.
At a congressional hearing earlier this month, OPM officials testified about their plans to improve digital defenses in the wake of the hack. The officials came under fire for what some lawmakers called their negligence, the Monitor鈥檚 Malena Carollo reported.
Meanwhile, government officials say it has been difficult to pinpoint exactly how many people were affected by the OPM hack.
鈥淐oming up with a hard-and-fast number鈥� for those impacted by the compromise of other OPM systems has been 鈥渞eally hard,鈥� largely because much of the digital trail was erased by the time authorities detected the intrusions, a top聽聽official said last week.
Experts say that the kind of data stolen can give hackers the ability to commit identity fraud and construct sophisticated e-mail scams, leading to even more damaging cyber attacks seeking higher value information, the Monitor reported.听
