Chinese hackers obtained all personnel records of U.S. government employees. No one knows what they will do with this information. The misguided White House demanded that all medical records be online using taxpayer funds to encourage medical facilities and professionals to place the information online. In another level of clueless public officials making policy the Cambridge City Council (and other governmental bodies) encouraged Wi-Fi nodes be installed across the city to allow everyone to enjoy access to the internet. There was no discussion of the lack of security of using this new technology. My queries to city officials who are teaching people to use Facebook without explaining how their information is a business went unanswered. Be prepared for any and all of your personal information being available to anyone with evil intent as easily as it is to those with good intentions.
[From article]
Hackers stole personnel data and Social Security numbers for every federal employee, a government worker union said Thursday, asserting that the cyber theft of U.S. employee information was more damaging than the Obama administration has acknowledged.
[. . .]
The OPM data file contains the records of non-military, non-intelligence executive branch employees, which covers most federal civilian employees but not, for example, members of Congress and their staffs.
The union believes the hackers stole military records and veterans' status information, address, birth date, job and pay history, health insurance, life insurance and pension information; and age, gender and race data
[. . .]
"We believe that Social Security numbers were not encrypted, a cybersecurity failure that is absolutely indefensible and outrageous," Cox said in the letter. The union called the breach "an abysmal failure on the part of the agency to guard data that has been entrusted to it by the federal workforce."
Samuel Schumach, an OPM spokesman, said that "for security reasons, we will not discuss specifics of the information that might have been compromised."
The central personnel data file contains up to 780 separate pieces of information about an employee.
[. . .]
In the Senate on Thursday, Democrats blocked a Republican effort to add a cybersecurity bill to a sweeping defense measure. The vote was 56-40, four votes short of the number necessary.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOVERNMENT_HACKED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-11-15-58-33
Jun 11, 8:09 PM EDT
UNION: HACKERS HAVE PERSONNEL DATA ON EVERY FEDERAL EMPLOYEE
BY KEN DILANIAN
AP INTELLIGENCE WRITER
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