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All About Hacking Government Systems

Jun 13 2015

GovernmentHacking

Hacking Government Systems goes Undetected for Over One year

According to a recent ABC News report, the hacking of the U.S Office of Personnel Management, which was discovered in April went undetected for over 12 months and the hackers could have accessed more information than previously thought.

The hack, which may have originated from China, is believed to have accessed more data, including forms used for background investigations, known as SF-86's. These forms may contain names of college roommates, so it's not just the personnel data that was accessed.

The OPM will be contacting government employees regarding the hack after investigations revealed that over four million former and current federal employees had been affected.

It is important to note that the hack was only discovered when the OPM was updating its system and would have gone unnoticed. After all, the hack on the OPM had been going on for over one year.

The massive amount of information stolen by Chinese hacker poses a serious threat to national security because it could be used for recruiting Americans for espionage missions. This is what former NSA intelligence analyst, John Schindler, thinks.

With sensitive information about gambling habits, overdue bills, bad loans, spat with spouses, sexual fantasies and other types of employee vices in the hands of the Chinese, recruiting government employees would be very easy. This can pose a major security threat to America.

US: Data on 4 million government staff hacked

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