The OPM Data Breach

So, apparently they’ve been lying under oath about it.

I wish I were surprised. I’m old enough to remember a time when people actually got in trouble for that.

[Update a while later]

How and why the OPM got hit with the biggest hack of all time.

[Update a few minutes later]

From comments:

Oh, it’s worse than that, though I realize it’s hard to imagine.

Consider: root access doesn’t just let you read the information. It lets you replace valid information with whatever you want. It lets you insert records into the data. In other words, it lets you create an SF-86 and background investigation for anyone. It lets you insert your own agents into the security records.

Including, I might add, agents of yours who might be hired to work at OPM. Which means that not only is that database blown, it must be considered corrupt – the information in it can’t be trusted because it may have been altered. That in turn means it needs to get wiped and go back to bare metal, then be reloaded from paper records. If they still have those records. And even if they do that, they can’t necessarily trust the records of the people doing this reloading.

This is what happens when you put incompetent political hacks in positions of great responsibility. And there’s no accountability.

[Update a few minutes later]

6 thoughts on “The OPM Data Breach”

  1. I blame Bush. Honestly. Post 9-11 with the creation of Homeland Security, contractors had to go through a background check, even if they were not seeking a clearance. So I filled out an SF-86, and it probably is in the hands of the highest Internet bidder. I’m not too worried about blackmail, but there’s enough there to assume my identity. So I say the AG should arrest Bush, and we can start the trial right away. Let’s start pulling the emails from OPM and begin the investigation! Until then, I think the US Government should buy everyone effected a life time of Lifelock, as starters until the class action suits start rolling in.

      1. I suspect that comment is self-referential, but feel free to research Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.

  2. Is there anything the administration doesn’t lie about?

    Instapundit seems to have been prescient in his Dense Pack theory, or whatever he called it. We are so accustomed now to the President and his administration flat out lying to our faces on a daily basis that no one calls for accountability, those people have long since burned out.

    1. “Is there anything the administration doesn’t lie about?”
      Maybe something they don’t think is important. But even then it may be compulsive.

  3. And as predicted, the head of OPM says that no one is responsible for this breech. Of course not. Holding politicians and bureaucrats responsible for their failures is just crazy talk. That will not do.

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