Additional information is trickling in about the data breach at the federal government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) late last week. It is important to note that information currently being reported by the media has not been confirmed by anyone in the government and much of it is speculation or unsubstantiated. Possibly fueling this behavior is the comment last week from White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest that even if the perpetrators are determined, there is no guarantee by the government that it will be reported or confirmed.
The Associated Press (AP) has quoted unnamed government sources that said the records dated back to 1980 and were therefore mostly former employees. ABC, also using unnamed sources, reported the intrusion actually happened over a year ago with the hackers working their way through four other agencies before getting to the OPM. The Wall Street Journal says the breach was discovered in mid-April.
So it is very confusing at this point and difficult to know what to do about it, if you are a current or former federal employee. For the time being, it is important to keep watch on your credit reports and information. If you haven't taken advantage of the free offers from various other large breaches, such as the Anthem incident, take advantage of it. If you are or were a federal employee and have been lucky enough to escape all of them, consider putting credit protection on your credit. The major bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) all offer a 90-day fraud alert service and it can help you protect your identity. It's free, but has to be renewed each time it expires. The credit bureaus will alert you if someone tries to access your credit report, although they will not stop them from getting it.
If you don't anticipate applying for credit in the near term, this consider putting a freeze on your credit. This will prevent an identity thief from opening any new accounts in your name. It will not affect your credit score, nor will it prevent you from obtaining your free annual credit report.
A freeze, however will not prevent someone from making charges on accounts to which they already have access, so be sure to monitor payment card charges for fraud.
Yes, encrypting social security numbers on computer systems on a network connected to the Internet in any way is important and it can be considered serious, if indeed this happened. However, it is important to note that if the hackers got into the system by using someone else's legitimate credentials, even encrypting that data would not have made a difference.
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