Washington hack: records breached.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings

IN JUNE, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which acts as the human resources depart-ment for the federal government, admitted that sensitive records pertaining to millions of federal employees had been compromised in a cyberattack. Back-ground investigations of some 4.2 million "current, former and prospective" federal employees, including their Social Security numbers, were stolen, according to an OPM announcement.The breach was arguably the single worst such attack in American history.

Over the next few weeks, it became clear that Chinese data g thieves had penetrated deep se into the American government's t personnel records. Hackers obtained explicit details about U.S. Workers' sex lives, an anonymous official told The Daily m Beast, as well as other potentially compromising personal info such as marital problems, gambling and drug habits, and debt. By the end of June, OPM had shut down its Electronic QuestionnairesforInvestigations Processing system, an online portal for submitting background check material, after identifying a potential vulnerability.

The shutdown was temporary, but...