Updating a blog post we brought you last week, Bloomberg has reported that as many as 18 million Social Security numbers may have been leaked due to a federal data breach. 
According to the news outlet, the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management testified last week that the massive cyber-attack might have been worse than expected.
“The 18 million refers to a preliminary, unverified and approximate number of unique Social Security numbers in the background investigations data,” Katherine Archuleta, director of the OPM, said during a House Oversight hearing.
Federal officials believe that the hack is connected to the Chinese government, who may have gained access to federal employee personnel information. The data leaked includes Social Security numbers, as well as information about birth dates, addresses and clearance information. The hackers reportedly looked for “manuals about the way we do business,” another OPM officer said during the House hearing.
The hack reportedly occurred on the agency’s servers in March 2014. Since the attack, the OPM has installed more firewalls and mandated cyber-security training for employees, according to Bloomberg.
Speaking to an Attorney about a Social Security Issue
It is unfortunate that this many people may have been affected by the breach. To deal with this disorder, the OPM indicated that it would provide employees with credit monitoring services for the next 18 months. Again, if you have concerns about identity theft because your Social Security number was exposed to the public, we suggest visiting this blog, where we discuss how you can monitor your personal information.
Our firm represents people applying for benefits including Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and we update our blog frequently when there are massive data breaches that affect people through Social Security number exposure.
Contact our attorneys if you need assistance applying for or appealing an SSDI benefit decision. We will update you about this story if more information is made public.
Troutman & Troutman, P.C. – Tulsa Social Security disability lawyers
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