The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced on Thursday that hackers had obtained the Social Security numbers and other information from more than 21 million Americans -- and now two presidential candidates are calling for OPM Director Katherine Archuleta to be dismissed.
Last month, reports emerged that hackers had stolen the information of more than 4 million Americans through OPM. Signs indicated the attack originated from China.
Appearing on Bill Bennett’s radio show last month, former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., now running for the Republican presidential nomination, called for President Barack Obama to fire Archuleta.
"You have a political hack -- you have the national political director of the Obama re-election campaign as the head of this," Bush told Bennett. "And just as has been the case across the board when we have this sheer incompetence or scandalous behavior, there's no accountability. No one ever seems -- no one seems to be fired. If I was president of the United States, that person would be fired."
But Democrats looked to make political hay out of Bush’s comments, noting a CNN story of a cyber attack during his time in Tallahassee when 108,000 Floridians had their information compromised through a breach from Convergys who had a state contract. Bill Simon, who managed that contract, is now on Bush’s presidential team.
“It's safe to assume Bush would fire someone responsible for a data breach since he's called for President Obama to fire the OPM director after their data breach, right?" liberal group American Bridge asked the media on Friday. “Nope. Bush brought back a former staffer to set up his 2016 campaign policy team, even after that employee oversaw outsourcing Florida's human resources to India that resulted in a data breach of more than 100,000 state employees' information.
“Jeb can do his best to spin this one, but empowering his own staffer responsible for the Florida data breach doesn't just make his incendiary comments about OPM seem flippant, it makes them downright hypocritical,” American Bridge added.
Bush was joined on Thursday by a fellow presidential candidate: U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. After the latest news about cyber attacks against OPM, Rubio, who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called for Archuleta to go.
“OPM officials need to be held accountable and fired for what appears to be utter incompetence,” Rubio said. “While it is completely unacceptable that our federal databases containing such massive amounts of personal information on federal employees could be so vulnerable in the first place, it’s even more infuriating that this data was hacked seven months ago and the American people are only now being informed about it. This breach has jeopardized our national security because it has given our adversaries information about over 20 million people working for the federal government, including our military and personnel involved in sensitive intelligence functions as well as their families.
“The U.S. needs an offensive cyber capability that can serve as a strong deterrent against enemy state actors and cyber criminals, like those involved in this effort out of China,” Rubio continued. “We also have much work to do to create the strongest possible cyber defenses to protect our government networks and ensure that the agencies handling important tasks such as security clearances are up to the challenge.
“But to be finding out about the extent of this December cyber attack only now is irresponsible and unacceptable,” Rubio concluded. “The American people, starting with the people who have had their data breached, deserve more candor, transparency and urgency from the Obama administration. They’ve been sitting on this reality for seven months. People need to go, starting with the OPM director.”
Archuleta laid out her response on Thursday.
“To help ensure the security and integrity of our systems and to assist with the response to recent incidents, I have brought to OPM experts in cyber security and management from both inside and outside of government,” Archuleta insisted. “In particular, I have created a new cyber security adviser position and will have more information on this in the coming days. In addition, in recent weeks, we brought to OPM a team of technical experts who have spent countless hours conducting a diligent investigation and a comprehensive review of systems. Finally, because I believe it is important to hear from a variety of perspectives when addressing dynamic cyber security threats, I am consulting with chief information officers and other leading experts from technology firms and other private companies that have experienced their own cyber incidents, to discuss the collective challenges we face and hear their advice."
Archuleta noted OPM “will be providing a comprehensive suite of credit and identity theft monitoring and protection services for background investigation applicants and nonapplicants whose Social Security numbers and other sensitive information were stolen" and opening websites and call centers to deal with stolen information. OPM is also improving its cyber security.
“Cyber security incidents are unfortunately not without precedent,” Archuleta insisted on Thursday. “As the president has made clear, cyber security is one of the most important challenges we face as a nation. In working together across OPM and across the federal government, I will continue to take aggressive steps to support efforts to improve federal cyber security and to develop new policies and capabilities to identify, defend against, and counter malicious cyber actors.”
UPDATE: With her support in Congress dropping, Archuleta resigned on Friday, National Journal reports.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
