'China-linked' hackers in second US intelligence data breach

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'China-linked' hackers in second US intelligence data breach

Large amounts of personaldetails on American intelligence personnel exposed

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 14 June, 2015, 2:19am
UPDATED : Sunday, 14 June, 2015, 2:19am

Associated Press in Washington

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest answers questions on the massive cyber-attack on the personal data of government employees on June 5. Photo: AFP

Hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, US officials said, describing a second cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the potential damage.

The forms authorities believed to have been accessed require applicants to fill out deeply personal information about mental illnesses, 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.

The White House said that last Monday, 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 … 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 about almost everyone with a security clearance. That's a gold mine. It helps you approach and recruit spies."

The Office of Personnel Management, which was the target of the hack, has not officially notified military or intelligence personnel whose security clearance data was breached.

Officials said they believed the hack into the security clearance database was separate from the breach of federal personnel data announced last week.

Nearly all of the millions of security clearance holders, including the CIA, National Security Agency and military special operations personnel, were potentially exposed in the breach.

In the hack of standard personnel records announced last week, two people briefed on the investigation disclosed that as many as 14 million current and former civilian US government employees had had their information exposed to hackers, a far higher figure than the 4 million the Obama administration initially revealed.

Officials have said that cybertheft originated in China and that they suspected espionage by the Chinese government, which has denied any involvement.