It seems the attack that hit last June was even worse than we thought.
Since it was announced in June that hackers had breached the U.S. Government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) database, the full breadth of the crippling cyberattack has gone from bad to worse. First, there was the revelation that the government’s initial claims that data had been stolen from just 4.4 million current and former government employees was a gross underestimate. In fact, the actual number was closer to 22 million affected employees, many of whom provided extremely personal information to the OPM—including social security numbers, birth dates, and statements on their sex lives, mental health history, and drug use—while applying for government jobs. As a result, OPM head Katherine Archuleta resigned the next day.
