Where's My Letter?
By now readers are familiar with the debacle of the successful hack of OPM. More than 22 million identities compromised. Over 1.1 million sets of fingerprints gone. It's a counter-intelligence nightmare of historic proportions.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
By now readers are familiar with the debacle of the successful hack of OPM. More than 22 million identities compromised. Over 1.1 million sets of fingerprints gone. It's a counter-intelligence nightmare of historic proportions. And the US government's principal reaction (at least as far as its compromised employees are concerned) is the announcement that it will spend over $133 million in ID theft protection. Cold comfort to those, like me, whose security clearance file was compromised -- as if the Chinese were interested in stealing my modest savings from the bank.
But there is more to this tale of incompetence than just the hack. Even the response has been badly bungled. To put it bluntly, even though I've held a security clearance for more than 10 years, and even though I have lived at my current residence on Capitol Hill for over 20 years (so my address in the database can't have changed) I still have not gotten a single communication from the US government about the breach. Either:
- The government never had my address as part of my security file;
- It lost my address along with my file;
- It has my address but can't be bothered to send me a letter notifying me of the breach; or
- It sent a letter but another arm of the government (the postal service) lost it.
Whatever the reason, the lapse inspires no confidence. So OPM, where is my letter??? You can send it to me by email at psrosenzweig@lawfareblog.com if you want.
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