Malicious Attackers have stolen more than 5.6 Million Fingerprints

American Office of Personnel Management OPM Compromised

Hackers got into the American office of personnel management system. Fingerprints of persons who applied and received security clearance at the US government has been compromised.

The official statement from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirms that black hat hackers / crackers have broken into their systems earlier this year.

This lead to a large scale data theft of more than 5.6 Million fingerprints.

A large increase from the earlier 1.1 Million fingerprints that was earlier reported.

The attackers can abused the stolen fingerprint sensitive data to compromise high level individuals.

It can allow them via the fingerprint to gain access to sensitive systems.

Allow them to obtain personal private information or to compromise other systems.

It can be used by attackers in blackmail operation or to blackmail users.

Hacker attack effecting at least 21.5 Million people

Not only fingerprints where stolen but also the Social Security Numbers, employment history, financial records, addresses of more than 21.5 million former and current US Gov employees also got stolen.

Due to the large scale hacker compromise attack a working group has been setup that consists of US agencies working together to investigate the case.

Hackers and or malicious attackers can exploit data to conduct other attacks

The data being stolen can be abused by black hat attackers to find out details about people working under cover the US Government.

The hackers can also use the information to conduct Phishing attacks, stalking or sell the data to third party that can lead to even more damage.

The sensitive information can also be abused to sell on the black markets such as a dark web.

Chinese black hat hackers suspected for being behind the attack

The US Government is suspecting Chinese state or non state sponsored hackers in the attack.

They have not officially accused the Chinese for being behind the attack.

Chinese officials deny any involvement at all in the hacker attack.

Even Chinas president Xi Jinping has under his current visit in the US suggested closer corporation with the US to combat Cyber criminals, IT Crime and IT Hackers.

The hacker attack compromise already lead to the first consequence of the person being fired.

Chief of American Office of Personnel Management being let off

The chief of the American Office of Personnel Management Katherine Archuleta has already being fired from the job for being responsible of poor security.