{"id":8413,"date":"2015-06-16T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=8413"},"modified":"2015-06-16T10:00:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T14:00:03","slug":"us-fears-second-major-breach-exposed-more-employee-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/06\/16\/us-fears-second-major-breach-exposed-more-employee-data\/","title":{"rendered":"US fears second major breach exposed more employee data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A second major cyber breach that might reveal far more personal and damaging information appears to have hit the U.S. government\u2019s Office of Personnel Management (OPM).<\/p>\n<p>The breach was apparently carried out by hackers with connections to China and targeted a database containing copies of the government\u2019s Standard Form 86, according to news reports citing unnamed government officials. The form, available online, is a 120-page questionnaire that\u2019s answered by people seeking a national security clearance.<\/p>\n<p>Those filling out the form are asked to provide highly personal details about their lives that go far beyond their birth dates and social security or passport numbers. Among the questions asked are details of former residences, names and addresses of neighbors and detailed information about family members.<\/p>\n<p>There are also many questions, confined to the last seven years, that ask about contact with foreign nationals and problems with drug or alcohol abuse, debts or bankruptcy, imprisonment or run-ins with law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>The hack is believed to be separate from one disclosed last week that targeted the same agency and is feared to have resulted in the theft of personnel records on millions of current and former government employees in all branches of government except the military and intelligence fields.<\/p>\n<p>That hack was initially thought to have affected about 4 million people, but the Associated Press reported on Friday that the actual number could be as high as 14 million.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. government has yet to officially pin blame for the first hack on any actor, but last week Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she believed the hackers were based in China.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, a union representing government employees said it believes the detailed personal information stolen was not encrypted on OPM servers.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of Personnel Management has yet to provide any details on the hacks beyond an initial statement published last week.<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2935712\/us-fears-second-major-breach-exposed-more-employee-data.html\" target=\"_blank\">US fears second major breach exposed more employee data | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A second major cyber breach that might reveal far more personal and damaging information appears to have hit the U.S. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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hackers suspected in USPS breach, data on every employee compromised","author":"NCCT","date":"November 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The FBI is investigating a data breach at the U.S. Postal Service in which employees\u2019 personal data may have been compromised. Every person on staff with the Postal Service, from the Postmaster General down to letter carriers, was exposed according to a report from the Washington Post. Sources familiar with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2988,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/22\/data-breaches-hit-2-5-million-in-california-in-2012-report-says\/","url_meta":{"origin":8413,"position":1},"title":"Data breaches hit 2.5 million in California in 2012, report says","author":"NCCT","date":"July 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In the first report of its kind, California's Attorney General, Kamala D. Harris, revealed last week that 2.5 million people\u2014roughly 6.5 percent of the state's population\u2014were exposed by data breaches in 2012. 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Within FireEye's sixth annual M-trends report, which tracks the threat landscape and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9031,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2016\/09\/24\/heres-what-you-should-know-and-do-about-the-yahoo-breach\/","url_meta":{"origin":8413,"position":4},"title":"Here&#8217;s what you should know, and do, about the Yahoo breach","author":"NCCT","date":"September 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Lucian Constantin | IDG News Service | PCWorld Yahoo\u2019s announcement that state-sponsored hackers have stolen the details of at least 500 million accounts shocks both through scale\u2014it\u2019s the largest data breach ever\u2014and the potential security implications for users. 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