Hackers have penetrated a computer center of the United States government and have stolen personal data of 4 million civil servants. The affected system was part of the Office of Personnel Management, the human resource department of the American government. The hack was discovered in April after a security upgrade was performed on the computer systems.
The department is working with the FBI, Homeland Security and US-CERT in the investigation of the hack. The 4 million officials whose data may have been captured will receive mail with guidelines on how to deal with possible identity theft. Data captured during the hack include social security numbers, job information and training dates.
Media like the Washington Post report that US authorities suspect Chinese government hackers are behind the intrusion of the data center. However, the official statement so far is that the government suspects only a foreign entity or country.
