A federal judge has named the lead attorney who will represent the complainants who had their information stolen in last year’s breach of the Office of Personnel Management.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson named Daniel Girard for the position. Girard previously handled the American Federation of Government Employees’ lawsuit against OPM over the same incident. Girard’s firm was one of six representing plaintiffs against the federal government.
Over the course of 2015, the OPM announced that a series of cybersecurity breaches had taken place, culminating in the theft of more than 22 million classified personnel files from the agency. The breach has been linked to hackers backed by the Chinese government.
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The agency announced that as of early December, it had notified about 93 percent of those affected, about six months after the full scope of the breach had been realized. The agency has spent more than $100 million offering identity theft services and similar protective measures for the victims, though if the information is held by a state-based actor, those services may largely miss the point.
A December report from the inspector general also indicated that OPM had failed to adhere to guidelines set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation, which resulted in the agency inappropriately awarding a $20 million contract to the Winvale Group and its subcontractor, CSIdentity. That led to renewed calls from some in Congress for the agency’s chief information officer, Donna Seymour, to resign.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs had been set to hold a Jan. 26 hearing on whether to confirm the agency’s acting director, Beth Cobert, to the position on a permanent basis. The hearing has been postponed until Feb. 4, but is certain to include a rehashing of the agency’s issues.
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Lawsuits related to the breach were consolidated in the Washington, D.C., court system in October. In addition to selecting Girard as the lead attorney for the case, the judge also appointed a liaison counsel and three attorneys to the plaintiffs’ steering committee. The group is expected to file an amended joint complaint, which will be due in a month.
