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F R I D AY 05 JUNE 2015
US officials point the finger of blame at China after hackers break into US government
computers, compromising the personal data of 4 million current and former federal
employees.
China has responded angrily to the suggestion, after the attack on the US
government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
What has happened?
As yet unidentified hackers broke into the OPM's information systems, with
the malicious activity detected by the agency in April.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said the attack hit OPM's
IT systems and its data stored at the Department of the Interior's data
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cybersecurity posture", the agency said. It was because of these new tools
that it detected the malicious activity.
Additional security measures have been implemented to protect sensitive
data, the OPM said, and over the next couple of weeks it will be emailing
the affected individuals with advice on credit monitoring and identity theft
protection.
Is the UK at risk from a similar attack?
Mark James, a security specialist at anti-virus firm Eset, said that the data
breach at such a high level should concern every government, including the
UK's.
"Any breach of this type of nature has implications worldwide," he said.
"The type of data obtained could be used in advanced phishing techniques
to contact or infiltrate other organisations."
Roy Duckles, channel director for Europe at online security firm Lieberman
Software, suggested that given the UK's position as an ally of the US,
similar cyber security practices to those breached in the US could be in
place here.
"Should the UK government be concerned, the answer is yes. Don't forget
that friendly nation states often share information both at a domestic and
international level and this includes using shared IT practices in many
instances.
"If the US can be breached, in what appears to be a very targeted and
specific attack, then there is nothing to say that hackers aren't already in
similar networks in the UK government."
Posted by Thavam