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posted by janrinok on Friday June 26 2015, @09:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the its-not-the-first-time dept.

Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Katherine Archuleta was called to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday. Estimates of the number of federal workers and retirees compromised by the OPM hack could rise substantially:

NPR, along with other news organizations, has reported the hack may have exposed the personal data of more than 18 million current and former government workers. But Archuleta told lawmakers that 18 million "refers to a preliminary, unverified, and approximate number of unique Social Security numbers," adding "it is a number that I am not comfortable with."

Archuleta stood by earlier estimates that 4.2 million current and former government employees' data was exposed. Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, wondered if the number "could be as high as 32 million." That was a reference to OPM's budget request in which it stated it has records for 32 million current and former employees. Archuleta reiterated that she was not going to "give you a number that I am not sure of."

Chaffetz reiterated his call for Archuleta to step down, telling her, "I think you're part of the problem." He also called for OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour's resignation, telling her, "I think you're in over your head." But Gerald Connolly, D-Va., came to Archuleta's defense, saying "it's easy to make a scapegoat out of somebody," but what the government is facing is "a much bigger threat than a management snafu." Connolly said the U.S. is "facing a systematic, organized, financed, pernicious campaign by the Chinese government... to penetrate our cyber world."

The Intercept has details about the parent company of a contractor involved in the OPM hack:

Officials at the Office of Personnel Management claim that their system was breached using credentials that were stolen from KeyPoint Government Solutions, a government contractor that provides background checks. The hack, which exposed personal information for potentially tens of millions of Americans, has drawn scrutiny to KeyPoint's security practices, with one senior lawmaker even calling for OPM to cease use of outside contractors.

But for KeyPoint's parent company, Veritas Capital, a private equity firm based in New York City, the hack is only the latest incident in a long history of controversial government contracting. [...] Of the many defense-related investments made by the company, the most famous has been the 2005 purchase of DynCorp International, a scandal-plagued company that played a pivotal role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though DynCorp prospered under Veritas ownership, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that DynCorp benefited from lax oversight and frequently billed the government for work that was never requested. In Afghanistan, Wikileaks cables revealed that DynCorp workers paid for young "dancing boys" to entertain policemen. In 2010, Veritas sold its stake in DynCorp.

In 2008, Veritas and another investment fund purchased Global Tel-Link, a telecommunications company that provides telephone services for prison systems. Under Veritas control, Global Tel-Link charged as much as $5 for a ten-minute call to inmates, a charge criticized as "basically a surtax on inmates and their families." The firm also acquired MZM Inc., an intelligence contractor, after the firm's founder was investigated for providing bribes to Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., in exchange for help obtaining Pentagon contracts. MZM under Veritas was renamed Athena Innovative Solutions, and as Bloomberg reported, the Pentagon later approved Athena's takeover of all of MZM's contracts.

Throughout its history, Veritas has fostered close ties to government officials. Campaign finance records show executives at the investment firm have given over $100,000 to various politicians, mostly Republicans. In 2014, Veritas paid Bill Clinton $250,000 for a speech. [...] For KeyPoint, Veritas again leveraged its relationship with a former official. Shortly after KeyPoint became a Veritas portfolio company in 2009, Veritas brought on former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to serve on its board of directors. "I look forward to working with Jeff, and the KeyPoint and Veritas teams on broadening the critical services KeyPoint provides to the government," Chertoff said in a statement released by the company.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Friday June 26 2015, @11:35PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Friday June 26 2015, @11:35PM (#201879)

    So.... the Chinese government is treating the U.S.A... the same way the U.S.A treats its citizens?

    the US government isn't made of angels but the Chinese government is a particularly bad bunch. i mean, i rather have my computer hacked than be dragged off for organ harvesting.

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