Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta said that she “is not comfortable” corroborating anonymous reports circulating that sensitive information from as many as 18 million current, former and potential federal employees and their families is in the hands of hackers, after they twice attacked OPM’s files last year.
That number “is unverified and approximate…and it is a number that I am not comfortable with,” she said at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. She said that number refers to “unique Social Security numbers,” which could overlap with the 4.2 million government workers OPM is positive had their personal information compromised.
The investigation is ongoing but for now, she can only confirm 4.2 million people were affected, she said, adding that the number could grow as investigators learn more.
Her testimony came in the wake of her Tuesday remarks, which hinted that OPM may be seeking more money to deal with the repercussions of what some are calling the largest data breach in the federal government’s history.
On Tuesday, the largest union of federal government workers said it’s completely unsatisfied with how OPM has handled the hack, and said more needs to be done to make government employees whole, including free credit monitoring for life.
