It is the second such breach of federal records revealed in the last week.
The forms authorities believed to have been accessed require applicants to fill out deeply personal information about mental illness, drug and alcohol use, past arrests and bankruptcies.
They also require the listing of contacts and relatives, potentially exposing any foreign relatives of US intelligence employees to coercion. Both the applicant’s national identification number and that of his or her cohabitant is required.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the security clearance material is classified.
In a statement, the White House said that on June 8, investigators concluded there was “a high degree of confidence that ... systems containing information related to the background investigations of current, former and prospective federal government employees, and those for whom a federal background investigation was conducted, may have been exfiltrated”.
“This tells the Chinese the identities of almost everybody who has got a United States security clearance,” said Joel Brenner, a former top US counterintelligence official. “That makes it very hard for any of those people to function as an intelligence officer. The database also tells the Chinese an enormous amount of information about almost everyone with a security clearance. That’s a gold mine. It helps you approach and recruit spies.”
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a central personnel database, which was the target of the hack, has not officially notified military or intelligence personnel whose security clearance data was breached, but news of the second hack was starting to circulate in both the Pentagon and the CIA.
The officials said they believe the hack into the security clearance database was separate from the breach of federal personnel data announced last week - a breach that is itself appearing far worse than first believed. It could not be learned whether the security database breach happened when an OPM contractor was hacked in 2013, an attack that was discovered last year. Members of Congress received classified briefings about that breach in September, but there was no mention of security clearance information being exposed.....................(FRANCE 24 with AP)..........http://www.france24.com/en/20150613-usa-second-breach-hits-military-intelligence-personnel-records
13/6/15
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Hillary Clinton accuses China of 'stealing US secrets'...
ReplyDeleteUS Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has accused China of stealing commercial secrets and government information.
She accused China of "trying to hack into everything that doesn't move in America", and urged vigilance.
US officials had named China as the chief suspect in the massive hack of the records of a US government agency earlier this year.
China had denied any involvement, and called US claims "irresponsible".
'Fully vigilant'
Speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, Ms Clinton said that China was stealing secrets from defence contractors and had taken "huge amounts of government information, all looking for an advantage."
She added that she wanted to see China's peaceful rise but that the US needed to stay "fully vigilant".
"China's military is growing very quickly, they're establishing military installations that again threaten countries we have treaties with, like the Philippines because they are building on contested property," she said....BBC
5/7/15