Office Of Personnel Management ( Opm ) - 1745 Words

Background Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in June 2015 discovered two cybersecurity breach incidents that impacted information of Federal government employees and contractors. OPM discovered that the background investigation data of current, former, and future Federal employees and contractors had been stolen y hackers. OPM found that sensitive information, including the Social Security Numbers of 21 million individuals were stolen from the background investigation databases. This includes 20 million individuals that applied for a background investigation, and 2 million non-applicants, mostly spouses or co-habitants of applicants. Some records also include Reports of Investigations/Statements from interviews conducted by†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ OPM manages pension benefits for retired Federal employees and their families. They also administer health and other insurance programs for Federal employees and retirees. †¢ OPM provides training and development programs and other management tools for Federal employees and agencies. †¢ OPM takes the lead in developing, testing and implementing new government wide policies that relate to personnel issues. As a prior OPM Credentialed Background Investigator from 2006-2009, I was dumbfounded on how something in this magnitude could occur. I was responsible to conduct federal background investigations and prepare reports of investigations in compliance with all laws, and other required federal agency regulations. Work cases throughout the geographic area of responsibility and travel to various places of employment, residence and education institutions. Background investigation records do contain some information regarding mental health and financial history provided by applicants and people contacted during the background investigation, however there is no evidence that health, financial, payroll and retirement records of Federal personnel or those who have applied for a Federal job were impacted by this incident (for example, annuity rolls, retirement records, USA JOBS, Employee Express). As I mentioned above, in 2015, OPM did discover that