Washington: Hackers allegedly linked to China gained access to sensitive background information submitted by US intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, American officials have said describing the breach to be worse than first acknowledged.
In an announcement, US' Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said that investigators concluded this week with "a high degree of confidence" that the agency's systems containing information related to the background investigations of "current, former and prospective" employees, and others for whom a background check was conducted, were breached.
The breach by Chinese hackers was wider than first acknowledged, and officials said on Friday adding a database holding sensitive security clearance information on millions of federal employees and contractors also was compromised.
Privately, US officials said the Chinese government was behind the breach. The administration has not publicly pointed a finger at Beijing.
OPM is assessing how many people were affected, spokesman Samuel Schumach said.
"Once we have conclusive information about the breach, we will announce a notification plan for individuals whose information is determined to have been compromised," he said.
The announcement of the hack of the security-clearance database comes a week after OPM disclosed that another personnel system had been compromised, Washington Post reported.
The discovery of the first breach led investigators to find the second - all part of one campaign by the Chinese, US officials say, evidently to obtain information valuable to counter¬espionage.
"This is potentially devastating from a counter¬ intelligence point of view," said Joel Brenner, a former top counter¬intelligence official for the US government, speaking about the latest revelation.
"These forums contain decades of personal information about people with clearances...which makes them easier to recruit for foreign espionage on behalf of a foreign country."
The breach of that data system affected 4.1 million individuals - all 2.1 million current federal civilian employees and 2 million retired or former employees.
Information on officials as senior as Cabinet secretaries may have been breached. The president's and vice president's data were not, officials said.
China has dismissed the hacking allegations, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman last week calling them "irresponsible and unscientific".
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