UPDATE: Union Claims that Hackers Have Accessed Personal Data of "All" Federal Employees

By Cynthia J. Larose

As an update to our blog post, "Data Breach Affects Millions of Current and Former Government Workers", a union representing federal workers is now claiming that the hack may be worse than originally feared.  Yesterday, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees said his organization now believes hackers stole the personal data -- including Social Security numbers -- of every single federal worker.  In a letter to Katherine Archuleta, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, obtained by the Associated Press, union head David Cox wrote:

We believe that the Central Personnel Data File was the targeted database, and that the hackers are now in possession of all personnel data for every federal employee, every federal retiree, and up to 1 million federal employees.

 

The agency has not yet responded, and the Cox letter does not provide evidence or other information to support the claim of expanded reach.

 

 

Subscribe To Viewpoints

Published

Viewpoint Topics

Professionals

Author

Cynthia J. Larose

Member / Chair, Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice

Cynthia J. Larose is Chair of the firm's Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice, a Certified Information Privacy Professional-US (CIPP-US), and a Certified Information Privacy Professional-Europe (CIPP-E). She works with clients in various industries to develop comprehensive information security programs on the front end, and provides timely counsel when it becomes necessary to respond to a data breach.