Posted on 06/18/2015 10:34:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In responding to China’s massive hack of federal personnel data, the government may have run afoul of computer security again.
Over the last nine days, the the Office of Personnel Management has sent e-mail notices to hundreds of thousands of federal employees to notify them of the breach and recommend that they click on a link to a private contractor’s Web site to sign up for credit monitoring and other protections.
But those e-mails have been met with increasing alarm by employees — along with retirees and former employees with personal data at risk — who worry that the communications may be a form of “spear phishing” used by adversaries to penetrate sensitive government computer systems.
After the Defense Department raised a red flag about the e-mails its 750,000 civilian employees were starting to receive, OPM officials said late Wednesday that the government had suspended its electronic notifications this week.
“We’ve seen such distrust and concerns about phishing,” OPM spokesman Sam Schumach acknowledged, describing the feedback from many of the 4.2 million current and former employees who are being notified that personnel files containing their Social Security numbers, addresses and other personal information may have been stolen.
Computer experts said the personnel agency — already under fire from lawmakers from both parties for failing to protect sensitive databases from hackers — could be putting federal systems in jeopardy again by asking employees to click on links in the e-mails.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Rules are for Republican administrations.
Dangerous amateurs!
Government routinely exempts itself from its own rules so I’m pretty sure this is legal.
This administration is above rules. They’ve proven that time and time again.
Idiots.
Imagine you’re one of the hacked individuals. You are now super security conscious. Then you receive an email instructing you to do the opposite of your training.
Idiots!
Hillary doesn’t follow the rules, why should the government?
Leadership at my agency has been AWOL. I think they’ve been too busy signing themselves up for LifeLock.
They’re discovering that you cannot escape the consequences of avoiding reality.
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