We the People petition aims to help feds affected by breach

A recent petition posted to the White House's We the People website calls on the government to offer lifetime identity protection for current and former federal...

A recent petition posted to the White House’s We the People website asks the government to offer lifetime identity protection for current and former federal employees impacted by the cybersecurity breaches at the Office of Personnel Management.

“Given the fact that many organizations that procure this type of data often don’t act on it for months while waiting for the free monitoring period to lapse, the federal employees who are victims of this attack will be vulnerable for many years and deserve more than 18 months of identity protection and monitoring. These federal employees should receive free identity protection and monitoring for life,” wrote D.V., the person who submitted the petition.

In order for the White House to respond to the request, 100,000 signatures are needed by July 19, 2015.

The personal information of at least 4.2 million current and former feds was compromised in the first data breach that hit an OPM personnel system. The agency is offering those affected individuals credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance for the next 18 months, free of charge.

It is unclear, at this point, how many people were impacted by a second breach on the government’s security clearance database and whether those people will also be offered the same type of identity protection. In congressional testimony last week, OPM Director Katherine Archuleta did not confirm or deny speculation that as many as 32 million people could be affected, citing the ongoing law enforcement investigation.

The American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit against OPM this week. It’s asking the agency to strengthen its cyber defenses and compensate federal employees that may be harmed by the recent attacks on the agency’s systems.

Read all of Federal News Radio’s coverage of the OPM Cyber Breach.

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