Roger That: Cyber-attack on feds compromised 21 million personnel records
Katherine Archuleta, the federal Office of Personnel Management director, agreed Friday morning to resign from her position, a day after insisting she wouldn’t do so in the wake of the hacking of more than 21 million Social Security numbers, 1.1 million fingerprint records and 19.7 million forms with data like someone’s mental-health history, according to the New York Times.
It was only a month ago that OPM said that it had lost 4.2 million personnel records belonging to current and former federal workers, including potentially millions of active duty and former troops, as part of at least two cyber-attacks in 2014. But those breaches, which weren’t discovered until this April, were much worse. OPM said Thursday that hackers likely stole every single background-investigation form completed by OPM since 2000—and it’s possible that forms filled out before that year were stolen as well.
Chinese hackers are the leading suspects in the cyber-attacks, according to James Clapper, the national intelligence director.
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War-time suicide attempts in the U.S. Army are most common in newer enlisted soldiers who have not been deployed, while officers are less likely to try to end their lives. At both levels, attempts are more common among women and those without a high school diploma, according to a study billed as the most comprehensive analysis of a problem that has plagued the U.S. military in recent years, according to The Associated Press.
Suicides in the military have gotten the most attention, but attempts are more prevalent and sometimes have different contributing factors. They’re “an opportunity to intervene,” said Dr. Robert Ursano, psychiatry chairman at the Uniformed Services University and the study’s lead author.
The study analyzed records on nearly 10,000 suicide attempts among almost 1 million active-duty Army members during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, from 2004 to 2009. That compares with 569 Army suicide deaths during the same period reported by researchers last year in a different phase of the same study. Rates for both increased during that time, the AP reported.
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Afghanistan is threatening to crack down on U.S. defense contractors it says owe hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes, including by freezing their bank accounts and refusing to renew yearly business licenses when they expire, according to Reuters, the international news agency.
The United States disputes some of the payment demands, saying companies were exempt under military agreements in force at the time, and both sides are trying to resolve the dispute before the deadline set in a new deal between the nations.
It has been extended by three months to Sept. 1.
Major defense firms targeted include Raytheon, DynCorp International and Supreme Group, and they provide vital services to NATO forces, diplomatic missions and the aid sector.
Contact reporter Mike Fitzgerald at mfitzgerald@bnd.com or 618-239-2533.
This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Roger That: Cyber-attack on feds compromised 21 million personnel records."