China hacks U.S. Government, 4 Million identities compromised

China-based hackers are suspected of
breaking into the computer networks of
the U.S. government personnel office
and stealing identifying information of
at least 4 million federal workers,
American officials said Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security
said in a statement that data from the
Office of Personnel Management and the
Interior Department had been
compromised.
4 million current and former federal
employees may have had their personal
information hacked.
The agency, which conducts background
checks, warned it was urging potential
victims to monitor their financial
statements and obtain new credit
reports.
U.S. officials believe this could be the
biggest breach ever of the government’s
computer networks.
“The FBI is conducting an investigation
to identify how and why this occurred,”
the statement said.
An assessment continues and it is
possible millions more government
employees may be impacted.
American investigators believe they can
trace the breach to the Chinese
government. Hackers working for the
Chinese military are believed to be
compiling a massive database of
Americans, intelligence.
A U.S. official, who declined to be named
because he was not authorized to
publicly discuss the data breach, said it
could potentially affect every federal
agency. One key question is whether
intelligence agency employee
information was stolen. Former
government employees are affected as
well.
“This is an attack against the nation,”
said Ken Ammon, chief strategy officer
of Xceedium, who said the attack fit the
pattern of those carried out by nation
states for the purpose of espionage. The
information stolen could be used to
impersonate or blackmail federal
employees with access to sensitive
information, he said.
It is not clear what the purpose of the
database is.
Employees of the legislative and judicial
branches, and uniformed military
personnel, were not affected.
The FBI is now investigating what
exactly led to the breach.
“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 FBI said in a statement.
The federal personnel office said
“personally identifiable information”
had been breached, though didn’t name
who might be responsible.
Source: CNN
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