Two months after the Office of Personnel Management first disclosed a second intrusion into its database, the government has awarded a $133 million contract to provide identity protection services to the more than 20 million victims involved in the hack. They're also hoping the notification process will be less confusing than the last time around.
The Office of Personnel Management and Department of Defense have awarded a $133 million contract to help protect the personal information of people impacted by the cyber breach.
Chief information officers know more now about long standing issues with federal IT security thanks to the cyber breaches at the Office of Personnel Management. Those problems date back to the 1990s when cyber threats started to change and agencies didn't try to keep up. Richard Spires is CEO of Resilient Network Systems and former chief information officer at the Homeland Security Department. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose about three big problems with federal IT security.
Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to the Agriculture Department's National Finance Center, the Pentagon's Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Interior Department's National Business Center and the General Service Administration's National Payroll Branch asking for details on their reporting of wage and tax statements in an effort to ensure tax refunds are going to the right people.
As the Office of Personnel Management data breach recedes into the past, the 30-day cyber sprint has left a lasting legacy, says Federal Drive host Tom Temin.
The Defense Department asks Congress for permission to reprogram more than 100 million dollars to contribute to the governmentwide collection to pay for data breach services. DoD is by far the largest agency sending money to the Office of Personnel Management. Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller is here to tell us about DoD’s request and what other agencies should take from it.
Defense Department Comptroller Michael McCord sent a reprogramming request to Congress in July asking to move money around to help pay for identity protection and data breach services as well as higher costs for security clearance background investigations.
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent three letters-- one to OPM, one to DHS and one to one of OPM's main technology contractors, Imperatis Corp., seeking answers to a variety of questions.
The Office of Personnel Management faces a third lawsuit in the wake of the cybersecurity breach it suffered in June that resulted in 22 million past, present, and potential federal employees having their personal information stolen.
The Office of Management and Budget's director urges Congress to reconsider the budget belt-tightening it has in store for the IRS, the Office of Personnel Management and federal IT.
It could take up to four months before some security firm is signed up to sort out (one hopes) the multiple messes caused by the cyber breaches earlier this year. The government has promised to provide protection to those impacted. That raises some questions for Senior Correspondent Mike Causey. How long will the protection last?
The Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general wrote a letter to acting Director Beth Cobert highlighting concerns about the lack of cooperation from the Donna Seymour’s office. Cobert and federal CIO Tony Scott continue to support Seymour’s efforts to improve OPM’s cybersecurity posture.
Following the hack of Office of Personnel Management databases, a group of tech-industry experts is offering to help the government secure its computer networks. The IT Alliance for Public Sector assembled a task force made up of 20 big companies like Symantec, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin. The group says the government must act boldly and alter its culture and approach. Pam Walker is the senior director of Homeland Security at I-TAPS. She joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to review the group's recommendations.
Despite overwhelming agreement that cybersecurity legislation is needed, Senate lawmakers couldn’t agree on how such a bill would look. Lawmakers did approve the nomination of Denise Turner Roth to be GSA administrator.
The back-and-forth is on hold now in the Senate over the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. The bill encourages private companies and government agencies to share information with each other about potential cyber threats. Both amendments to the CISA are holding it back.One would give the Office of Personnel Management an extra 37 million dollars to fix its IT networks a year ahead of schedule. The other would give victims of OPM's data breaches a few more years of free credit monitoring. Ryan Lucas is an intelligence reporter for CQ Roll Call. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose what's in the bill and whether the disagreements can be resolved.