Once more unto the breach, dear friends …

Next time you hear the classic once-more-unto-the-breach- line will you think of Shakespeare, the Charge of the Light Brigade or yourself circa June 2015?

It’s just been a few days since feds — active and retired — learned that somebody has managed to hack into their personal data, not once, but twice. At least. And some of the information goes back to people who worked for the government in the last three decades.

They — the breachers — got your full legal name, address, birthday and Social Security number. Everything that a would-be identify thief could want. Later, it was announced that a second “breach” swept up background investigation data that, in the wrong hands, could be used for a variety of bad things: From blackmail to recruiting double agents.

OPM has hired a private firm to shore up its data defense and to contact (by email or snail-mail) people in the hacked pool. The Washington Post said the contract is for $20.7 million.

Federal union leaders — the presidents of the AFGE, NTEU and NARFE — have slammed OPM. They blame the agency for not preventing or detecting the two separate breaches, then for waiting months to tell employees and retirees it had happened. AFGE President J. David Cox, wants the government to provide lifetime credit monitoring, not the 18 months it has proposed.

According to most news stories, the government learned of the hack in April although actually it had taken place in December. The public was notified June 6 (by coincidence D-Day). If you do the math that gives the breachers lots of time to start doing whatever they planned.

Members of Congress who have cut agency budgets and demanded more transparency now want to know why this happened, and how come the government can’t better guard its secrets?

The bad news is that there is probably more bad news to come. Maybe about the timing, extent or coverage of the breaches. Maybe that there have been more, earlier, than we now know. Then — eventually — what the bad guys are doing with it, what that will mean to both your credit rate, job and national security. For some tips on things you can do to protect yourself from credit fraud, click here.

Buy Low, Sell High: Most investors know that critical rule-of- thumb. But when the markets start jumping up and down, many people wind up selling low and, when things improve, buying high.

Today at 10 a.m. on our Your Turn radio show financial planner Arthur Stein will talk about strategies for federal, postal and retiree investors in the Thrift Savings Plan. You can call it at 202-465-3080 or email questions to me, before the show, at: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com.

For some of the subject’s we’ll cover, click here.

Read all of Federal News Radio’s coverage of the OPM Cyber Breach.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

By Michael O’Connell

In the 1989 film “Henry V”, Paul Scofield portrayed the King of France, a role that Ian McKellen had turned down.

Source: IMDB

RELATED STORIES:

Agencies notify employees of 2nd cyber breach
Agencies are officially notifying federal employees of a second data breach at the Office of Personnel Management that could put their personal information at risk. OPM has given agencies a boilerplate email to send to employees regarding this new cybersecurity problem.

OPM hacks and response: Debacle doesn’t even cover it
I thought the announcement June 4 of a cyber hack at the Office of Personnel Management was the biggest screw-up in the history of the agency. OPM failed miserably to protect the most valuable information it had: personally identifiable information on federal employees.

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