Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the US government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, senior US officials said. They appeared to be targeting the files of tens of thousands of employees who have applied for top-secret security clearance.
The hackers gained access to some of the databases of the US Office of Personnel Management, before federal authorities detected the threat and blocked them from the network, officials said. It is not yet clear how far the hackers penetrated the agency’s systems, in which applicants for security clearance list their foreign contacts, previous jobs and personal information, such as past drug use.
In response to questions about the matter, a senior US Department of Homeland Security official confirmed that the attack had occurred, but said that “at this time” neither the personnel agency nor homeland security had “identified any loss of personally identifiable information.”
The official said an emergency response team had been assigned “to assess and mitigate any risks identified.”
One senior US official said that the attack was traced to China, although it was not clear if the hackers were part of the government. Its disclosure comes as a delegation of senior US officials, led by US Secretary of State John Kerry, are in Beijing for the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue.
Computer intrusions have been a major source of discussion and disagreement between the countries, and the Chinese can point to evidence, revealed by Edward Snowden, that the US National Security Agency went deep into the computer systems of Huawei, a major maker of computer network equipment, and ran many programs to intercept the conversations of Chinese leaders and the military.
US officials said the attack on the Office of Personnel Management was notable because while hackers try to breach US government servers nearly every day, they rarely succeed.
One of the last attacks the government acknowledged occurred last year at the US Department of Energy. In that case, hackers made off with employees’ and contractors’ personal data. The agency was forced to reveal the attack because state disclosure laws force entities to report breaches in cases where personally identifiable information is compromised.
Government agencies do not have to disclose breaches in which sensitive government secrets, but no personally identifiable information, has been stolen.
Just a month ago, the US Department of Justice indicted a group of Chinese hackers who work for the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398 and charged them with stealing corporate secrets. The same unit, and others linked to the military, have been accused in the past of intrusions into US government computer systems, including in the office of the US secretary of defense.
However, private security researchers say the indictments have hardly deterred the Chinese military from hacking foreign targets and US officials are increasingly concerned that they have failed in their efforts to deter computer attacks from China and elsewhere.
“There’s no price to pay for the Chinese and nothing will change until that changes,” one senior US intelligence official said.
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