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Mike Causey's Federal Report
'Good' news
about the OPM breach
Friday - 6/19/2015
By Mike Causey
So what, if any, is the good news coming out of the Great Hack Job of
2015. Can there be any? The short answer is, yes, some, a little. But
first this:
At this point in time, we still don't know what we don't know. What we
know, or think we know, is:
The breach took place late last year. It wasn't
discovered until April.
The hack attack was made public June 6.
It covers an estimated 14 million people. That is up
from the original estimate of 4 million hackees. That includes current
federal civilian personnel, some former civil servants and an
undetermined number of retirees. Plus who knows who else?
Two kinds of information were stolen. Personal
identification such as full name, birth date, Social Security number,
address. The sort of thing identity thieves love. And need. The other
information came from background checks for security clearances. That
kind of very personal, sometimes embarrassing information — medical
problems, affairs, sexual information, financial problems — is the
stuff spy recruiters and blackmailers love to own. It tells them (the
security services of China??) the name and location of everyone who has
a security clearance.
The Washington establishment has gone into high dudgeon mode. They (we)
want to know how this could happen? And what did they know (or not) and
when did they know it. Or not? Heads, or at least one, must roll. Most
people seemed to have fixed on Office of Personnel Management Director
Katherine Archuleta as the designated fall guy/person.
Joel Brenner, a former top American counterintelligence officer told
the Associated Press that the breach "makes it hard for any of those
people to function as an intelligence officer. The database also tells
the Chinese an enormous amount of information about almost everyone
with a security clearance. That's a gold mine. It helps you approach
and recruit spies."
Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden said this is "a tremendously
big deal." He told the Wall Street Journal this is just the kind of
info the CIA and NSA would like to get on the Chinese. But they,
apparently, got there first.
Hayden said if he'd had the chance to grab similar data from the
Chinese government while at the CIA "I would not have thought twice.
... This is not 'shame on China,'" he said. "This is 'shame on us' for
not protecting that kind information." Which brings us to the next
question: What next?
The information is gone. What will be done with it remains to be seen —
and in the case of current and former feds — felt. Will your credit be
destroyed? Will you be approached in a bar?
And the good news. Almost forgot...
Read the rest of the article at Federal News Radio
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