The hack(s): Are you naked in China?

Does thinking about the Chinese intelligence community poring over the meaning of your mother’s maiden name give you the creeps?

Are you nervous because agents of the Ministry of State Security may know your job title, grade level, salary and where you live? Creeped out by the thought that a U.S.-bound Chinese academic or student may be studying your vital statistics as prep for a future meeting?

Although China has denied it, U.S. government sources say it is responsible for the two hacks of Office of Personnel Management databases and an earlier data intrusion of the Thrift Savings Plan, Uncle Sam’s massive in-house 401(k) operation.

Financial data of rival governments’ employees is a tempting and legitimate (to them) target of any hostile—and sometimes friendly—intelligence organization. People expect the Chinese, Russian, North Korean and Cuban intelligence services to be constantly probing us. They are often surprised when allies like Israel—Can you say Jonathan Pollard?—do it too. But it happens. It’s likely to get worse before it gets better.

So what next?

Federal News Radio wants to know how you feel about the hacks. Are they avoidable outrages? Or part of our brave new computer world? Take the survey today so we can include your responses in an upcoming story . 

And tune in tomorrow, Wednesday, July 22, at 10 a.m. to our Your Turn radio show. We’ll be talking with Federal Times editor Jill R. Aitoro about the latest details on the OPM data breaches. We’ll discuss how they happened, what the attackers want with the data and what’s next for you.

Nearly Useless Factoid:

 By Matt Wingfield

Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks only 18 lines and fewer than 100 words in The Terminator, the movie that made him a global star. In the 1984 classic, the future California governor plays a cyborg killer who tries to change history by traveling back in time to murder the mother of a yet-to-be-born hero.

Schwarzenegger’s Austrian accent “had a strange synthesized quality, like they hadn’t gotten the voice thing quite worked out,” Director James Cameron told Entertainment Weekly in 1991.

Of course, the only line he uttered that matters has just three words: “I’ll be back.”

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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