Chinese hackers are suspected of carrying out a
"massive breach" affecting the data of millions of
US government workers, officials said.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
confirmed on Thursday that almost four million
current and past employees have been affected.
The breach could potentially affect every federal
agency, officials said.
Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said it was thought to have originated
in China.
The Chinese embassy in Washington warned
against "jumping to conclusions".
Embassy spokesman Zhu Haiquan told Reuters
news agency that the accusations were "not
responsible, and counterproductive".
Analysis by Tom Bateman, BBC News, Washington
It is the scale of what the OPM calls a "cyber
intrusion" in April this year that is breathtaking -
the records of four million former and current
government employees may have been breached.
The agency is contacting all of those potentially
affected, offering to insure them against identity
fraud. Of even greater concern may be the fact that
security clearance information on government
officials could have been targeted.
US officials are only too aware of the real damage
caused by such virtual threats. In the past year, a
growing number of government agencies and
companies - most notoriously Sony Pictures -
have fallen victim to such attacks.
OPM serves as the human resource department for
the federal government. The agency issues security
clearances and compiles records of all federal
government employees.
Information stored on OPM databases includes
employee job assignments, performance reviews
and training, according to officials.
The breach did not involve background checks and
clearance investigations, officials said.
Mrs Collins called the breach "yet another
indication of a foreign power probing successfully
and focusing on what appears to be data that
would identify people with security clearances".

Using a new cyber security system known as
Einstein, the OPM detected a "cyber-intrusion" in
April 2015. The FBI said it was investigating the
breach.
Ken Ammon, chief strategy officer of Xceedium - a
cyber security firm - warned that the hacked data
could be used to impersonate or blackmail federal
employees with access to sensitive information.
Previous hack attacks on US government
In November 2014 a hack compromised files
belonging to 25,000 employees of the
Department of Homeland Security, as well as
thousands of other federal workers
In March 2014 hackers breached OPM networks,
targeting government staff with security
clearance, but the attempt was blocked before
any data was stolen. The intrusion was traced
to China
In 2006, hackers believed to be based in China
breached the system of a sensitive bureau in
the US Department of Commerce. Hundreds of
workstations had to be replaced
Congressman Adam Schiff has called for cyber
databases to be upgraded in light of the most
recent attack.
Americans "expect that federal computer networks
are maintained with state of the art defences", Mr
Schiff said.
"The cyber threat from hackers, criminals, terrorists
and state actors is one of the greatest challenges
we face on a daily basis, and it's clear that a
substantial improvement in our cyber databases
and defences is perilously overdue."



www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33017310

After We'll call them CHINCOs


These people Badt joor