More than 21 million affected by government data breach

Calls for Archuleta’s resignation began last month as the scope of the intrusions into the OPM’s databases became evident. Most of the records relate to people who had applied for a background investigation, the personnel agency said.

President Barack Obama, who appointed Archuleta in 2013, accepted the resignation as his administration pledged to step up its cybersecurity efforts and help the 22.1 million people whose data was stolen.

According to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, Obama’s view on Archuleta remains consistent, and he has “confidence that she is the right person for the job”.

“I conveyed to the President that I believe it is best for me to step aside and allow new leadership to step in, enabling the agency to move beyond the current challenges and allowing the employees at OPM to continue their important work”, she said in an email to employees.

Following reports of the first attack, fingers were pointed to China.

Chinese hackers are the chief suspects, but the Obama administration has not blamed China or anyone else.

That staggering number includes 19.7 million individuals who applied for background investigations, as well as 1.8 million nonapplicants, who are primarily spouses, partners and cohabitants of the applicants.

In its original announcement, OPM stated that there “is no information at this time to suggest any misuse or further dissemination of the information that was stolen from OPM’s systems”.

Although some have blamed interests in China for the hack, officials remained tight-lipped, saying that investigations are still ongoing: “Just because we’re not doing public attribution does not mean that we are not taking steps to deal with the matter”, Daniel said.

“Each and every one of us at OPM is committed to protecting the safety and the security of the info that is placed in our trust”, Archuleta said.

The security breach also yielded home addresses, education and employment history, mental health, criminal and financial records.

The agency said that for those who underwent a background investigation through OPM in 2000 or after, “it is highly likely that you are impacted” by the hacking. The critical information, which was not encrypted, involves a complete rundown of the personal lives of about 90% of applicants for security clearances, mainly excepting most undercover Central Intelligence Agency agents.

That includes drug use, romantic histories and close friends overseas of those in the military, National Security Agency (NSA) and sensitive State Department posts, among many others, essentially a road map for what weaknesses might be used for blackmail by a foreign power.

Nicko Van Someren, CTO at Good Technology, said the nature of the information stolen in the cyber attack against OPM could be devastating and the potential for the details to be used for cyber crime is high.

“It’s a tremendous coup for China”, Alperovitch said.