Hackers stole 21M Social Security numbers, far more than initially reported

WASHINGTON:Hackers who breached United States government databases stole personal information of 21.5 million people, officials said Thursday following an investigation into the attack widely blamed on China.

The 21.5 million included 19.7 million individuals who applied for security clearances, plus 1.8 million nonapplicants, including mostly spouses or co-habitants of applicants, Office of Personnel Management said.

The government says people who had background checks through OPM starting in 2000 are “highly likely” to have been affected by the data breach.

Some of the records include findings from interviews conducted by background investigators and some 1.1 million include fingerprints.

Well, today the OPM sent out a press release saying that it turns out that sensitive information connected to roughly 21.5 million people was breached and stolen.

OPM said that it had “no information at this time to suggest any misuse or further dissemination of the information that was stolen from OPM’s systems”.

Following the two attacks, the OPM said it is establishing an online cybersecurity incident resource center, https://www.opm.gov/cybersecurity, and will open a call center in the coming weeks to respond to questions. They will be offered at no charge “full service identity restoration support and victim recovery assistance, along with identity theft insurance, identity monitoring for minor children and continuous credit monitoring “for a period of at least 3 years””.