Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, MD: As you may have already heard on the news, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently became aware of a cybersecurity incident affecting its systems and data that may have compromised the personal information of current and former Federal employees. There has been a breach of the electronic Official Personnel Folders (eOPF) across the Federal workforce. The information below details what occurred and what individuals who have been affected by the breach can expect. Individuals affected will be contacted by DISA.
Forensics have determined that a foreign entity has stolen eOPF information regarding approximately 4 million personnel across the federal government. This includes current employees, retirees, and others who have separated.
OPM is handling this issue and has provided the following timeline of events:
30-April-2015 - White House notified;
1-May-2015 - House Committees Notified; This Week - Senate Committees will be notified;
4-June-2015 - Large agencies inform senior staff, national unions notified, OPM to provide agencies information packets for dissemination, OPM to issue a press release, resource link posted to Defense.gov
Beginning 8 June and continuing through 19 June notifications will go out to approximately 4 million individuals whose Personally Identifiable Information was potentially compromised in this incident. The email will come from opmcio@csid.com and it will contain information regarding credit monitoring and identity theft protection services being provided to those Federal employees impacted by the data breach. In the event OPM does not have an email address for the individual on file, a standard letter will be sent via the U.S. Postal Service.
In order to mitigate the risk of fraud and identity theft, OPM is offering affected individuals credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance with CSID, a company that specializes in identity theft protection and fraud resolution. This comprehensive 18 month membership includes credit report access, credit monitoring, identity theft insurance, and recovery services, and is available immediately at no cost to affected individuals identified by OPM.
Additional information about the breach and what to expect will be made available beginning Monday, 8 June 2015 at 0900 EST on the company's website, www.csid.com/opm (external link), and by calling toll-free 844-222-2743 (International callers: call collect 512-327-0700).
More information about the breach, and steps and precautions employees can take to safeguard their identity and financial information can be found at http://www.opm.gov/news/latest-news/announcements/. This is all the information available at this time. Additional information will be disseminated as soon as it is received.
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