US Personnel Chief Resigns After Massive Data Breach, Bigger Than Previously Disclosed

By Tribune News Service. The head of the U.S. personnel office, Katherine Archuleta, resigned Friday in the wake of a pair of massive data hacks said to affect 25 million people, far more than had been acknowledged before.

Personal information, including the Social Security numbers of 21 million people, was stolen in the hacks into government personnel files that began last year, officials said Thursday. Another 4 million people also had information stolen in one of the breaches, which weren’t discovered until a few months ago.

Archuleta said in a statement that she told President Obama that it was best for someone else to lead the Office of Personnel Management as it tries to recover from the intrusions and toughen the government’s digital security systems.

“It is best for me to step aside and allow new leadership to step in, enabling the agency to move beyond the current challenges and allowing the employees at OPM to continue their important work,” Archuleta said. (Read more from “US Personnel Chief Resigns After Massive Data Breach” HERE)

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Day Before Hack Announced, Director of Personnel Focused on ‘Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination’ Issues

By Jeryl Bier. The day before the Office of Personnel Management first announced a massive data breach of personal information, now former OPM director Katherine Archuleta’s attention was focused elsewhere. Archuleta published a blog post on June 3 entitled “Celebrating Every Member of Our Federal Family” in recognition of “LGBT Pride Month.” The White House reposted Archuleta’s article the same day.

In her post, Archuleta announced the release of an updated guide called “Addressing Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination in Federal Civilian Employment: A Guide to Employment Rights, Protections, and Responsibilities.”

As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month, I want to proudly reinforce my continued commitment to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members of our federal family, and recognize the incredible contributions this community has made in service to the American people…

That’s why I’m so excited to announce that the Office of Personnel Management is joining our partners at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit System Protections Board, and the Office of Special Counsel to release an updated guide titled “Addressing Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination in Federal Civilian Employment: A Guide to Employment Rights, Protections, and Responsibilities.” This informative resource will help LGBT federal employees make more informed choices about how best to pursue their individual claims when they believe they have suffered from discrimination.

On the OPM website, the agency has seven “top priorities” listed. The first two are “Honoring the Workforce” and “Build a More Diverse and Engaged Workforce”. Number four on the list is “IT Improvement” to “streamline and update IT systems” and number five is “Background Investigations” to “lead efforts to strengthen the background investigations program across government.” The priorities list does not include any direct references to “security.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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