OPM Cyber Breach

A judge said the difference between “disclosure” and “theft,” and inability to predict future harm were two reasons she dismissed the OPM data breach lawsuits.

The FBI arrested Pingan Yu, who they say is a malware broker in the People’s Republic of China.

Along with Danny Toler, Dave DeVries, OPM’s CIO, is leaving government service and Grant Schneider takes on additional duties at the NSC.

George Fallon, a 30-year veteran of IT auditing, explains why agencies need to re-evaluate the protection of e-mail, document and business systems.

Current and former counterintelligence officials say there is no known evidence so far that a victim of the Office of Personnel Management’s cyber breaches has been specifically targeted. Instead, the public’s loss of trust in OPM and government as a whole has been the biggest damage done after the breaches.

The Office of Personnel Management didn’t have a decision-making policy in place to help it decide when and how to offer identity theft and credit monitoring services to victims of the 2015 cyber breaches. More than a year later, the agency still doesn’t have a plan.

The Office of Management and Budget’s fiscal 2016 Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) report to Congress shows more agencies have stronger cyber defenses in place.

A committee within the Homeland Security Department is finalizing a new guide for agencies, state and local governments and other organizations involved in cyber breaches with best practices for notifying victims.

The Office of Personnel Management’s National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) awarded a contractor for support services in January, but now is facing complaints from two unsuccessful bidders.

Bill Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and the National Counterintelligence Executive, said foreign hackers will target current and former federal employees based on a broad set of data, not just personal information stolen during the massive breach in 2015.

IT leaders at the Office of Personnel Management say the agency has one major database left to encrypt, which contains some high-value assets and personally identifiable information for security clearance holders and federal employees.

As acting Office of Personnel Management Director Beth Cobert looks back on her tenure at the agency, she’s confident that federal employees should feel more comfortable in OPM’s ability to protect their data.

Cybsersecurity, customer service, even deep space exploration are on the list of federal agencies’ Performance.gov goals in fiscal 2016-17.

Sylvia Burns, the Interior Department’s chief information officer, said her team responded aggressively over the last 18 months to improve the agency’s cybersecurity posture, including using two-factor authentication for computer access.