WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Steve Daines today reiterated his calls for new leadership at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in light of new reports that more than 21.5 Americans were victims of a mass breach of the OPM’s personnel database. This reported hack is in addition to the more than 4.2 million breached records originally announced by OPM last month.
“The systemic failures and lack of accountability at OPM is staggering and completely unacceptable. The breach reported today is five times larger than OPM’s initial reports and not only affects federal employees, but employees’ family and friends, government contractors and countless others,” Daines stated. “OPM is in desperate need of accountability. Leadership starts at the top, and it is past time for Director Katherine Archuleta and Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour to step down so that badly-needed reforms and security measures can be implemented at OPM.”
Daines noted that in the press statement released today by OPM, information regarding the full scale of the breach was buried in the sixth paragraph of the press release – demonstrating the agency’s failure to provide the American people with needed transparency regarding the true scope of these cyber attacks.
“OPM has not only failed to protect federal employees’ personal information, but has utterly ignored repeated calls to be accountable to the American people,” Daines added. “It’s unacceptable that OPM’s leaders are more focused on protecting their image than providing the American people with the answers and information they deserve.”
Like many other Americans, Daines received a notice that his information may have been compromised in the breach announced last month.
On June 23, 2015 Daines called for Archuleta’s resignation and on June 24, 2015 called for CIO Seymour to resign as well.
Daines previously expressed his deep concerns that Chinese hackers infiltrated our nation’s military and intelligence agencies. Daines has also repeatedly called for quicker notification standards in the event of a data breach of Americans’ personally identifiable information.
Before serving in Congress, Daines worked in the technology sector for more than twelve years. He served as vice president of Montana-based RightNow Technologies, a global leader in cloud computing and multi-billion dollar technology company that became Bozeman, Montana’s largest commercial employer.
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