OPM Data Breach: Part II

PURPOSE:

• To provide Members an opportunity to gain additional information on the security of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) information systems and the data it is entrusted to protect.
• To examine OPM compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

BACKGROUND:

• On June 4, OPM announced a data breach and its plan to notify approximately 4 million individuals whose personally identifiable information (PII) may have been compromised. The full extent of the data breach, including who was affected and what information was accessed, is still unknown.
• The Committee held a hearing on June 16, 2015, titled, “OPM: Data Breach.” In prepared testimony, OPM Director Archuleta stated that “there was a high degree of confidence that OPM systems related to background investigations of current, former, and prospective Federal government employees, and those for whom a federal background investigation was conducted, may have been compromised.”
• During the hearing, OPM Director Archuleta indicated that, “any federal employee from across all branches of government, whose organization submitted service history records to OPM, may have been compromised.”