2 Months After 'Staggering' Hack, 21.5M in the Dark

It could be weeks before those affected are notified
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 15, 2015 7:14 AM CDT
2 Months After 'Staggering' Hack, 21.5M in the Dark
A chart of data breaches is shown on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2015.   (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

If the Office of Personnel Management performed a background check on you at some point during or since 2000, your personal information was probably compromised in the hack that was discovered in May and revealed last week. But some two months since its uncovering, none of the 21.5 million Americans affected has actually been notified, and those people shouldn't hold their breath. It could be weeks before such notification occurs, an unnamed OPM official tells Reuters.

The official says a notification system is still being developed, and cites a complexity to the matter caused by how commonplace it is for government employees and contractors to transfer among various agencies. Reuters notes that OPM will likely bring on a contractor to assist with the work, but that it hasn't even begun the bids process. An earlier OPM hack affected 4.2 million people, who have been alerted. The information taken in that hack was much less sensitive. There is some overlap between the two groups. (More Office of Personnel Management stories.)

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