OPM has announced it brought its background investigations system, e-QIP, back online following the recent massive data breach that saw security clearance data on millions of federal employees siphoned out of government systems.
OPM shut down the system in late June after a security review identified a weakness, explained the Beth Cobert, who recently took over the helm at OPM following the resignation of Katherine Archuletta.
Cobert said cybersecurity expertise was brought in from across the federal and private sectors to remediate and test the e-QIP system.
She also said the agency has added new features to online resources made available for victims of the cyber intrusion at opm.gov/cybersecurity in response to user feedback. (It has been suggested that the system was compromised when hackers acquired the user credentials of a contractor with access to the system.)
However, most of the some 20 million people affected still have yet to be informed that their information was included in the breach. According to OPM the following groups are affected:
– Current and former federal government employees;
– Current and former federal contractors;
– Job candidates for federal employment who were required to complete a background investigation;
– Spouses and co-habitants of current and former Federal employees, contractors, and job candidates whose information was stolen;
– Immediate family, close contacts, and references of current and former federal employees, contractors, and job candidates whose information was stolen.
