CHINESE government hackers are suspected of hacking computer networks of the United States Postal Service (USPS), jeopardizing the information of more than 800,000 employees.
The FBI informed the Postal Service in mid-September, at which time the discovery of the data breach was made, officials said. Affected systems include the Office of Personnel Management and USIS, a contractor that runs security-clearance checks.
Compromised employee information includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and dates of employment, among other data, officials said.
“It is an unfortunate fact of life these days that every organization connected to the Internet is a constant target for cyber intrusion activity,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement. “The United States Postal Service is no different. Fortunately, we have seen no evidence of malicious use of the compromised data and we are taking steps to help our employees protect against any potential misuse of their data.”
Customer data for those who called or emailed the Postal Service Customer Care Center between Jan. 1 and Aug. 16 was also affected, according to officials. Email addresses and phone numbers were compromised, but social security numbers and credit card information acquired via online or in-person post office purchases were not.
Experts say reasons for the hack may be related to espionage, but the Chinese government cites that it forbids cybercrime and has repeatedly denied accusations of engaging in cybertheft.
Some analysts say that China setting sights on a federal agency like USPS as a means of espionage is understandable. James Lewis, a cyber-policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Washington Post that China may assume that USPS is a similar entity to the US government, which holds an abundance of information on its citizens.
Although USPS was informed of the hack earlier this year, it did not begin taking measures to remedy the situation until this past weekend. The agency also began informing employees of the breach on Monday, Nov. 10.
“Acting too quickly could have caused more data to be compromised,” USPS spokesman David Partenheimer told The Washington Post.
The FBI is leading the investigation of the data breach.
(With reports from The Washington Post)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek November 12-14, 2014 Sec. B pg.1)
