US personnel chief resigns in wake of massive data breach

Katherine Archuleta, who formerly served as the national political director for the 2012 re-election campaign of President Barack Obama, oversaw an unprecedented data breach of private information that her agency was responsible for protecting, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

On Thursday, the OPM acknowledged that hackers had stolen the personal data of at least 22.1 million current, ex- and prospective government employees and their family and friends.

This second incident, OPM said, involved 19.7 million people who underwent background checks and 1.8 million of their spouses and others who never applied for security clearances.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest spoke out about the resignation of Archuleta. However, Earnest said there are new “urgent and significant challenges” that the OPM faces that requires, “new leadership with a set of skills and experiences that are unique” to such challenges.

A White House official said Beth Cobert, the deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget and a former longtime management consultant at McKinsey & Co., would step in temporarily to replace Archuleta while a permanent successor is found.

Fox News reported that White House sources informed them that Archuleta submitted her resignation to President Obama earlier this morning.

She has been under fire since the OPM disclosed in June that it had been hacked and had failed to notice for a year, as data on about four million current and ex- federal workers was siphoned from the agency’s networks.

In her statement, Archuleta said leading the agency has been the highlight of her career.

The agency was working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to prevent “similar thefts” in the future, it said on Thursday.

Two administration officials confirmed that Archuleta plans to resign.

The USA has blamed China for a series of high-profile cyber attacks on USA government and business entities in recent years. OPM said the most sensitive information on the financial and mental health history of applicants was stored in a different database that doesn’t appear to have been compromised. Many on the Hill and elsewhere have called for Archuleta and OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour to step down. Yet it wasn’t immediately clear whether lawmakers would support her given her role as the No. 2 at the agency during the data breach. Prior to joining OPM, Cobert worked for almost three decades as a consultant for the firm McKinsey & Company.