U.S. Government Personnel System Hacked

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed Thursday that the Office of Personnel Management computer systems may have been hacked. The Office of Personnel Management essentially functions as the federal government’s human-resources agency.

DHS officials told The Washington Post that the department’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center were alerted to a “potential intrusion” of the network. The agency and has been working with OPM and other agencies to assess and mitigate risks. The official said the agencies have not yet found “any loss of personally identifiable information.”

The story was first reported by the  New York Times last Wednesday. The report indicated that Chinese hackers penetrated OPM’s database containing files on all federal employees. The Times reported that the break in actually occurred in March of this year and specifically targeted employees who had applied for Top Secret security clearances. The number of targeted file easily topped the tens of thousands.

Officials reported that the hackers gained access to some of OPM’s  databases before the federal authorities detected and blocked the threat to the network.  It is still not clear how successful the hackers were in  penetrating the agency’s systems. The network contained data in which applicants for security clearances list their foreign contacts, previous jobs and personal information like past drug use.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official acknowledged that the attack had occurred but stated “at this time,” neither the personnel agency nor Homeland Security had “identified any loss of personally identifiable information.” According to an official an emergency response team was assigned “to assess and mitigate any risks identified.”

Another senior American official acknowledged that the attack was traced to China however it was not immediately clear that the hackers were part of the Chinese government.

Breaking it Down

African-Americans make up 17.7%of the federal workforce. Which means that we are well represented in the files of the Office of Personnel Management. And to hear that not even the government’s personnel records are secure from hackers means we have to look harder at our security measures.

Let me explain something to you. I applied for a Top Secret Security clearance years ago. Some of the information I had to reveal was pretty sensitive. Not only that but I had to provide the names, addresses and dates of birth for many people in my life. I had to answer questions about money, sex and drugs. Its a pretty intrusive process. If those hackers were Chinese then they were shooting for the big prize by attacking that data base. If they were not then we as a country are in deep, deep trouble because now we are at the mercy of common criminals who may be able to access government systems at will.

Our government has reported that they detected the intrusion and stopped it but they don’t know what information or if any information identifiable to a person was taken.

As a nation we need to demand greater security for our information and that starts at the top; with the U.S. government. No system is completely un-hackable. But we need to demand that our networks, private and public be the most secure systems possible. We need to change the culture and fight hacking like we fought drugs. Too many people think hacking is a game and that all systems are free game. We need to make sure that hackers spend time in prison. Make hacking a crime with even more serious repercussions.

But lets look at another topic we need to address. Hasn’t our government, with its vast resources and intelligence capabilities  hacked into the computers of other nations? Have we not taken information about their people, their defenses and their secrets. So…whats fair is fair?