He said, she said
It's a bit ironic that some government officials want companies like Apple and Google to tone down their encryption methods and allow backdoor access to electronic devices so that law enforcement can investigate illegal activities. The reason it's ironic is because the lack of encryption may have resulted in the personal information of each and every federal employee being compromised in a recent security breach.
The Associated Press obtained a letter by J. David Cox, president of the American Federal of Government Employees, to Katherine Archuleta, the director of the Office of Personal Management. In the letter, Cox said that hackers were able to obtain all kinds of personal information, things like Social Security numbers, pay history, life insurance information, names, addresses, birth dates, and more.
"We believe that Social Security numbers were not encrypted, a cybersecurity failure that is absolute indefensible and outrageous," Cox wrote.
Cox added that after an assessment of internal OPM briefings, he believes "the hackers are now in possession of all personal data for every federal employee," including federal retirees and as many as one million former federal workers.
The OPM has so far held firm that the actual damage is far less severe and that only limited personally identifiable information was compromised.
It seems as though there's quite a bit of secrecy going around. While the U.S. government is reluctant to publicly point the finger at China, Senator Harry Reid, one of eight lawmakers who was brought up to date on secret intelligence information, said on the Senate floor that the attack was performed by "the Chinese."
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1S8MyUy
