It isn’t just the employees and ex-employees of the OPM that have had to deal with the trauma of the data hack instances lately; it is also their family members and acquaintances that are under the threat. As per the initial reports, sensitive data of around 4 million people were compromised; this number has now risen to over 22 million and this is by no means a small number to be ignored.
There have been major uproars in the US after new findings were out that claimed that this data hack didn’t take place overnight. Rather, there were intrusions that took place months before they were noticed and there were hackers well within the network to be able to steal the most confidential security clearance data. Owing to these scary revelations, the opposition in the US demanded for removing the top OPM officials from their posts.
While it was only recently that OPM Director, Ms. Katherine Archuleta shared an official note that she isn’t yet resigning from her post, it isn’t the case anymore.
With growing demands for her resignation and removal from post, the US government has issued an official update stating that Ms. Archuleta has stepped down as the head of OPM and the government was working on creating stringent measures to further strengthen cyber security. After her resignation was accepted, she’s shared that it was “…best for me to step aside and allow new leadership to step in…”
As per the latest White House updates on this case, Beth Cobert will be the acting OPM director. She was earlier working in the White House Budget office.
While this new development is been viewed by many as a step towards better cyber security, it still remains to be seen if actually this will do any good as the damage caused by the near back-to-back hack instances have left the Americans and also the rest of the world wary and scarred.
The OPM hack has put in danger crucial information such as social security numbers, name, address and other personal information of the victims and even security clearance secrets that can be manipulated and misused in several ways by the hackers. The US government is claiming that it is the Chinese hackers that are behind this hack; China has vehemently denied this claim.
