The Central Intelligence Agency pulled agents out of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing after the exfiltration of information from the Office of Personnel Management, according to officials quoted in the Washington Post on Tuesday.
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The move was precautionary, officials said. The OPM’s files did not contain information on individuals with the highest level of security clearance, such as undercover agents, but could have allowed the Chinese government to identify them through a process of elimination.
By reviewing the embassy’s staff list, the government could have deduced that any staffers who were not in the OPM’s database were engaged in intelligence operations.
The Obama administration has refused to publicly attribute the OPM breach to China, but the revelation indicates that the government seems sure that the hack was based in China.
In August, the Los Angeles Times quoted officials who said that at least one ring of engineers and scientists who provided technical assistance to undercover agents had been withdrawn from a foreign location. It’s unclear whether any connection exists to the CIA’s withdrawal from Beijing.
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Speaking before a Senate panel on Tuesday, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the OPM breach was a problem that will not go away for some time. “Unfortunately, this is a gift that’s going to keep on giving for years,” Clapper said.
The breach resulted in the loss of personnel files on 21.5 million individuals who have sought security clearances from the U.S. government. Intelligence officials have said it was a legitimate target for foreign adversaries that the U.S. should have done a better job of protecting, but have also noted that the U.S. engages in similar activity.
“We too practice cyberespionage,” Clapper said. “In a public forum I can’t say how successful we are, but we’re not bad at it.”
