OPM Notification and Response

Today I received a breach notification letter from the US Office of Personnel Management.  My wife received one, too.  We are affected because we have both been subject to numerous “single-scope background investigations” (SSBI) for our security clearances.  Earlier this year, OPM discovered an intrusion that resulted in the loss of its background investigation database (21.4 million records), the fingerprint database (5.6 million records), as well as the federal employee database (4.2 million records). (See my blog post on the OPM intrusion: OPM Breach Blog Post)

As part of OPM breach response, OPM is offering the following services to those whose information has been compromised::

• Credit Monitoring Service
• Identity Monitoring Service
• Identity Theft Insurance
• Identity Theft Restoration Service

These services are being offered for three years.

Information Compromised

If you have ever filled out a Standard Form 86 (SF-86) applying for a background investigation for a security clearance, then you know the scope of the information requested.  If someone has access to your SF-86, there is almost nothing that they wouldn’t know about you.  It’s more than a little troubling to think about all that information being in the hands of a foreign government.

According to the letter the following information about me (and my wife) has been compromised from the OPM Background Investigation Database:

• Name
• Social Security Number
• Address
• Date and Place of Birth
• Residency History
• Educational History
• Employment History
• Personal Foreign Travel History
• Information about others:
  • Immediate Family
  • Business Contacts
  • Personal Acquaintances
• “…other information used to conduct and adjudicate your background investigation.”

In addition to the above, the letter lists my fingerprint records as “likely compromised”.

Also, be aware that the above information is or may be collected about immediate family members (spouse, children, parents, siblings, cohabitants) as part of the investigation required to approve (or deny) an individual for a security clearance.  That information is also included in the background investigations database that was compromised.

What Do You Think?

Have you received one of these letters, too?  Are you concerned that all this information about you and your family has been compromised?  Are you concerned about how that information may be used?  Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Here’s the Letter:  OPM Breach Notification Letter