The Obama administration has rehired an outside contractor that was partly responsible for what many think was the largest theft of personal information from the government in U.S. history, even as it continues to boast of several new steps it is taking to enhance federal cybersecurity.
The Office of Personnel Management is housing a new entity charged with ensuring the integrity of background checks for potential federal workers and contractors, and OPM has hired four contractors to help with this work.
One of them is Key Point Government Solutions, Inc., the company from which hackers gained access to an employee’s credentials to steal personal information from 22.1 million federal workers and contractors, an event that forced the OPM chief to step down.
Key Point is the subject of a class-action lawsuit, along with OPM, spearheaded by the country’s largest government union, the American Federation of Government Employees.
However, Key Point was one of four companies to receive contracts worth at least $1 million to help the government’s cybersecurity efforts. The others are CACI Premier Technology, Inc., CSRA LLC, and Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, LLC.
“This award also increases the industry base for performing investigative fieldwork and will allow OPM to work with the contractors over time to increase capacity and enhance the service delivered to our agency customers,” OPM stated in announcing the contracts Sept. 12.
“I look forward to continuing our relationship with CACI and Key Point, and to partnering with CSRA and Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services,” OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert stated. “These companies will work in coordination with OPM federal investigators in providing this critical function of conducting hundreds of thousands of background investigations for federal agencies annually.”
Just days before Key Point was rehired, some Democrats criticized the company and others for playing a role in the OPM data breach. Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a damning report of the breach on Sept. 7, and Democrats responded by saying that report downplayed the flawed contractors.
“The Republican staff report fails to adequately address federal contractors and their role in federal cybersecurity,” Democrats said in reaction to the report. “One of the most significant deficiencies uncovered during the committee’s investigation was the finding that cyber requirements for government contractors are inadequate.”
The four contractors will help OPM run a new background check system that the White House highlighted Wednesday as a bulwark against leaks, such as one by an independent contractor working at the National Security Agency that the Justice Department made public Wednesday.
“Part of this involves the creation of a National Background Investigations Bureau that will ensure that these background investigations are conducted more efficiently and more effectively,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest said as he described the new effort.
Charlie Phalen, former security director at the CIA, was picked to run the new division at OPM.
Earnest said the Obama administration has worked hard, especially since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began leaking damaging information in 2013, to beef up security on who is allowed access to classified and secret information.
“Those steps include building up an effort at the Director of National Intelligence called the National Insider Threat Task Force. This task force has essentially established government- wide minimum standards for insider threat programs for all agencies that handle classified information,” Earnest said Wednesday.
“There are also some more basic changes that have been made with regard to the way background investigations are conducted. For example, there’s now a five-year re-investigation requirement for all individuals with a security clearance,” Earnest said.
The Obama Administration has also cut by 17 percent the number of people who can access classified information. “So that’s an indication of some tangible progress that we have made in ensuring that this information is well protected,” Earnest said.
