China suspected in massive breach of federal personnel data

WASHINGTON -- 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, officials said Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement data from the Office of Personnel Management and the Interior Department had been compromised.

"The FBI is conducting an investigation to identify how and why this occurred," the statement said.

The hackers were believed to be based in China, said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican.

Collins, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said the breach was "yet another indication of a foreign power probing successfully and focusing on what appears to be data that would identify people with security clearances."

A U.S. official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the data breach publicly, said it could affect every federal agency. One key question is whether intelligence agency employee information was stolen.

"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.

The Office of Personnel Management is the human-resources department for the federal government, and it conducts background checks for security clearances. The OPM conducts more than 90 percent of federal background investigations, according to its website.

The agency said it is offering credit monitoring and identity-theft insurance for 18 months to individuals potentially affected. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers in 31 federal agencies, said it is encouraging members to sign up for the monitoring as soon as possible.

In November, a former DHS contractor disclosed another cyberbreach that compromised the private files of more than 25,000 DHS workers and thousands of other federal employees. Cybersecurity experts also noted the OPM was targeted a year ago in a cyberattack that was suspected of originating in China. In that case, authorities reported no personal information was stolen.

Rick Holland, an information-security analyst at Forrester Research, said it's possible hackers could use information from government personnel files for financial gain.