The US officials have announced that the largest government data-breach in history has happened, putting millions of Americans at risk. Investigators say nearly every US government agency has been hit by hackers and they say they believe China is behind it. As many as 4 million current and former federal employees may have had their personal information compromised and millions more may be effected, according to investigators.
CNN said this could be the biggest ever breach of government computer networks in the Unites States. The office of personnel management says it is notifying 4 million current and former government workers that their data may have been compromised by hackers. But government officials say that this is much bigger than the similar one at the Department of Interior. Nearly every federal government agency was hit by these hackers. That means potentially millions more people would be affected.
The investigators believe that they can trace the breach to China and that the hackers working for the Chinese military are believed to be compiling a massive data base of Americans. What they plan to do with it, is still a mystery.
But the Chinese embassy in Washington has responded to the hacking accusation saying “Chinese laws prohibit cyber-crimes of all forms. China has made great efforts to combat cyber-attacks in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations. Cyber-attacks conducted across countries are hard to track and therefore the sources of attacks are difficult to identify. Jumping to conclusions and making hypothetical accusation is not responsible and counterproductive.”
Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director for FBI told CNN that “I think it is little too early to tell who is behind this attack. If it is China, it is not unusual for foreign intelligence services to look to collect information about US government employees. Often time what they look to do, is to gather dossiers on employees so that they can target them through physical attacks. And by collecting all these information, they are having a giant data base that they may be able to tap into it anytime in future.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are now investigating what led to the breach.