OPM breach affected friends and family

Last year’s data breach at the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) compromised the personal details of potentially tens of millions more individuals than the 21.5 million initially disclosed, the department has revealed.

The OPM, the agency that manages the civil service of the US federal government, has updated its FAQs regarding the incident to clarify that personal information from an applicant’s close friends and family members included in background investigation forms were also exposed.

This information likely includes names, addresses, dates of birth and similar information, but not social security numbers.

Due to the nature of the background checks this could potentially include details of non-US residents a job applicant keeps in close contact with.

Because the information is more limited than the details applicants are required to provide about themselves — and is typically the kind of information already publicly available through directories or social media — the OPM said that contacts impacted by the data breach will not be offered identity protection services.

The OPM announced in September last year that the personal records of 21.5 million current and former US federal employees, including fingerprints of around 5.6 million workers, were compromised in a cyberattack. Chinese hackers are suspected in the incident.

Image courtesy of Diego Cambiaso under CC