OPM Now Admits 5.6m Feds’ Fingerprints Were Stolen By Hackers (Wired, Sept 23, 2015)
On Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management admitted that the number of federal employees’ fingerprints compromised in the massive breach of its servers revealed over the summer has grown from 1.1 million to 5.6 million. OPM, which serves as a sort of human resources department for the federal government, didn’t respond to WIRED’s request for comment on who exactly those fingerprints belong to within the federal government. But OPM had previously confirmed that the data of 21.5 million federal employees was potentially compromised by the hack—which likely originated in China—and that those victims included intelligence and military employees with security clearances.
www.wired.com/2015/09/opm-now-admits-5-6m-feds-fingerprints-stolen-hackers/
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Why has the federal government done almost NOTHING to help protect those who had their personal data stolen because of the lax cyber-security standards of the OPM? This is a major failure on the part of our federal government.
Comments
That data should never have been on a network connected to the Internet. Those responsible for that gaff need to suffer the same level of punishment as we would have had inflicted on us ( LLNL folk ) - prison, fines, etc.
Meanwhile some very personal data is now in ( presumably ) Chinese hands. If you think credit card theft is bad just imagine what could be done with the details from the background check files. Having a year of ID theft protection feels very inadequate for what has been done.
Suing for damages - how do you put a price on this? I suggest that we lump this in with all the other information China has stolen and just cancel the loans/etc. that the US owes China. And CUT the lines to China until such time that they learn to behave in a civil fashion, not common thieves. Yes, that is harsh - so be it.
Have a native Chinese speaker make thrm call. They will look up the data freebof charge. Modern information systems protect the data.
Better if you can help them interpet the difficult concepts in the data Dr. Lee sold them.
September 24, 2015 at 7:01 PM
As if the effects were separable. Dream on. Your knowledge of international economics is less than you think it is.
Of course there would be a ripple ( more a tsunami ) through the markets. It's not that I don't know, more that I don't care. China is being propped up by US debt and it's time to yank that prop out from underneath them. Their economy, which is teetering, would collapse - sending shock waves through the markets. We get upsets like that right now - and for far less important reasons. The economy will rebound, like it always does.
China has been waging war, albeit cyberwar on the US for years. What would you propose as a response - bomb the complex where the hackers are housed? That would be far worse than taking economic redress as proposed earlier.
Re: propping. China has "invested" heavily in the US as mentioned before. To the point where their economy has become dependent on that imbalance. Remove it and the internal stresses in their society would overwhelm their government - something the communists in power are quite afraid of.
September 26, 2015 at 10:39 AM
I don't get paid to do that, but Obama's advisors do, and they get paid very well. They also have access to the intel and military information needed to formulate effective responses. In case you haven't noticed, all of Obama's foreign policy is "just ink on a page." And he is perpetually surprised when the "deals" get violated. Maybe his advisors need to suggest to him that it is time to draw another "red line." As a mere citizen, and voter, all I can do is try to ensure the next president is someone who actually cares about US national security, not the feckless, naive, fraudulent fool we currently have.
That comment was uncalled for, crossing the line into personal attack.
You may think that trolling like that is harmless fun, but a great number of retirees would be very upset to be called that after all they sacrificed in order to serve the United States.
Yes, we all retired to finally have some peace and quiet. I guess we are traitors !
It was SARCASM, you idiot!
Frankly I doubt anyone who would use the word "traitor" as a joke ever worked for either lab. The topic of theft of personal data is serious, China deserves to be punished for the break-in.
I doubt you meant to post in humor since anyone familiar enough with blogs, email, and IM would have used e-motes.
I'll ignore the ad-hominum/ non-sequitur. What my handle means was explained many months ago. Scooby knows who I am, which is all that matters.
Back to the theft of personal data. How do we sanction China so they stop the hacking/espionage?
October 2, 2015 at 2:31 AM
Wow, did you mean "emoticons"? They were invented by and for vacuous teenagers who don't know enough about language to express or detect humor, sarcasm, or irony. You sound mighty proud of your technical skills, Grandpa. IM?? Read about that in a history book, huh?
I'm tired of your off-topic bile, troll. Go pester your peers on 4chan. This blog is for lab folk current and retired.
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