Fingerprints of 5.6 million Fed employees stolen

Fingerprints of 5.6 million Fed employees stolen

by Malik korrich ~ jeudi 24 septembre 2015

Fingerprints of more than 5.6 million Federal Employees have been stolen in an attack on the computer network of the Office of Personnel Management. The investigation is currently underway by the Office of Personnel Management and Department of Defence are conducting the investigations into the breach of data.

What was initially reported as a breach of information of around 4.5 million employees is now reported as 5.6 million, an increase of over 1.1 million in breach. The actual number can be much higher as the information of over 21.5 million fed employees has been compromised whose social security number have been stolen.

According to the US officials, the investigation is still underway and there is no conclusion regarding the perpetrator of the attack. It has however been acknowledged unofficially that the attacks have been done by Chinese hackers. Chinese President Xi Jinping is slated to visit Washington and the US President Barack Obama will be meeting him on his visit where the two leaders will discuss about various issues. One of the issue that President Obama will talk to President Jinping about is that of the cyber threats posed by China and will ask him to take measures to counter such attacks on the US government agencies by the Chinese hackers.

Such attacks where the government departments are targeted have increased in the recent times and the breach of the data of fingerprints is the latest in this series. However, officials have also stated that the chances of misuse of this data is bleak and if the technology capable of using fingerprints is developed in future, the affected victims will be informed about it. The government has already communicated the breach to the victims and has also offered to monitor their credit scores for free.