WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hackers who stole security clearance data on millions of Defense Department and other US government employees got away with about 5.6 million fingerprint records, some 4.5 million more than initially reported, the government said yesterday.
The additional stolen fingerprint records were identified as part of an ongoing analysis of the data breach by the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Defense, OPM said in a statement. The data breach was discovered this spring and affected security clearance records dating back many years.
The news came just ahead of a state visit to Washington by Chinese President Xi Jinping. US officials have privately blamed the breach on Chinese government hackers, but they have avoided saying so publicly.
President Barack Obama has said cybersecurity will be a major focus of his talks with Xi at the White House tomorrow. The United States has told China that industrial espionage in cyberspace by its government or proxies is “an act of aggression that has to stop,” Obama said recently.
US officials have said no evidence has surfaced yet suggesting the stolen data has been abused, though they fear the theft could present counterintelligence problems.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said yesterday the investigation into the data breach, which affected the records of some 21.5 million federal workers, was continuing and he did not “have any conclusions to share publicly about who may or may not have been responsible.”
He indicated the OPM announcement was not related to Xi’s visit but instead came about because officials at OPM had met with members of Congress and told them about the fingerprints and so needed to release the information to the public as well.
