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The
officials from multiple agencies, who are familiar with an
investigation into the breach, said the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM), which oversaw the data, is working with other
agencies to set up a system to inform the victims.
One official at OPM, who declined to be identified, said that
because of the complicated nature of the data and the fact that
government employees and contractors often move among different
agencies, it would be weeks before a mechanism was in place.
The official said the government was trying to establish a
centralized system rather than leave the notification to
separate agencies. OPM is expected to hire an outside contractor
but has not yet sought bids for the work.
The head of the OPM, Katherine Archuleta, resigned last Friday
after coming under heavy fire in Congress over the security
breach, which was disclosed in May, and an earlier OPM hacking
that was made known in April. Government officials suspect
Chinese hackers were responsible.
Almost all the 4.2 million people exposed in the earlier breach,
which affected only basic job application data, have been
notified, a U.S. official said. They have been invited to enroll
in an identity protection program.
The much larger breach discovered in May and made public last
week involved much more sensitive personal information OPM
gathered for security clearances investigations of current,
former and prospective federal employees and contractors.
They included 19.7 million contractors and employees who applied
for security clearances, and 1.8 million "non applicants" whose
personal data was included in security clearance applications,
such as spouses.
OPM has said that anyone who underwent a security clearance
background investigation through OPM in 2000 or afterwards is
likely affected by the latest data breach.
There is some overlap among the individuals whose data was
compromised in the two breaches.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
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