Massive cyber attack hits US federal workers, China calls hacking blame ‘irresponsible’

Asia-Pacific, News, US June 5, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Nearly 4 million US federal employees may have had their personal data breached by hackers. Anonymous sources say the source of the cyber-attack is China.

Hackers breached the computers of the U.S. government agency that collects personnel information for federal workers in a massive cyber attack that compromised the data of about 4 million current and former employees, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

U.S. officials believe a foreign entity or government was believed to be behind the cyber intrusion against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and media reports said authorities suspected it originated in China.

It could be the biggest breach ever of the government’s computer networks, officials claimed. China called the allegation irresponsible.

The breach affected OPM’s IT systems and its data stored at the Department of the Interior’s data center, which is a shared service center for federal agencies, a DHS official said on condition of anonymity. The official would not comment on whether other agencies’ data had been affected.

“The FBI is working with our interagency partners to investigate this matter,” the bureau said in a statement. “We take all potential threats to public and private sector systems seriously, and will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace.”

“The last few months have seen a series of massive data breaches that have affected millions of Americans,” U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement.

But he called the latest intrusion “among the most shocking because Americans may expect that federal computer networks are maintained with state of the art defenses.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it had launched a probe and would hold the culprits accountable.

Beijing calls reports of Chinese involvement ‘irresponsible’

Beijing on Friday labelled as “irresponsible” reports that Chinese hackers were behind a massive cyber-attack on personal data of millions of current and former US federal employees.

The US government on Thursday said that hackers accessed the personal data of at least four million current and former federal employees. Officials told US media that China was suspected.

“Cyber-attacks are generally anonymous and conducted across borders and their origins are hard to trace,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing.

The Washington Post and other US media cited government officials as saying that Chinese hackers were behind the breach.

“We have seen a lot of media reports and opinions like this recently,” Hong said.

“China itself is also a victim of cyberattacks,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Friday in Beijing. “China resolutely tackles cyberattack activities in all forms.”

He added that China would like to have more global cooperation “to build a peaceful and safe, open and collaborative cyberspace.”

And he also called on the United States not to make groundless accusations about China’s involvement “but instead add more trust and cooperating in this field.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington countered that such attacks would not be allowed under Chinese law. “Chinese laws prohibit cyber-crimes of all forms. China has made great efforts to combat cyber-attacks in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations,” embassy spokesman Zhu Haiquan said.