Double Standard in How OPM Treats Data Breach Victims
July 16, 2015
Categories:
Washington, D.C.
The Office of Personnel Management has set up a double standard for those whose personal data was stolen from OPM’s computer systems.
OPM has offered the 4.2 million current and former federal employees whose information was stolen during the hack of OPM’s personnel records with an inadequate 18 months of credit monitoring and a maximum of $1 million in liability insurance.
Meanwhile, the agency is offering a more expansive ‘suite of remedies’ to those whose information was stolen in a hack of OPM’s background investigations system. Those affected by the second breach will reportedly receive three years of credit monitoring, an undisclosed amount of liability insurance, fraud monitoring services beyond credit files, and identity monitoring for minor children.
This disparity is absolutely outrageous.
“This double standard cannot stand,” AFGE said in a statement. “Why should federal employees be forced to make do with less – less credit monitoring, less liability insurance, less fraud monitoring services, less identity monitoring? There is no justification for this inequity.
"OPM should provide every affected person with fully paid lifetime credit monitoring from a list of qualified providers, as well as liability insurance that covers the entirety of any loss attributable to the breach. At the very least, everyone affected by these cybercrimes should receive the same level of protection regardless of which computer system their information happened to be in.”
