State hackers hit US Interior data center

State hackers broke into a data center of the US Department of the Interior and stole the personal data of 4 million officials. It was about human resources systems.

The hack affected the systems of the Office of Personnel Management, the human resources division of the US government. The intrusion was discovered in April after the agency tightened the security of its systems.

The agency is working with the FBI, Homeland Security and US-CERT to investigate the hack. In June, the 4 million officials whose data may have been stolen will receive an email from the service with guidelines on how to act in the event of identity theft. This includes social security numbers, job details and training data.

US media outlets such as the Washington Post report learning from sources at US services that Chinese state hackers were behind the intrusion into the data center. Officially, however, the government only speaks of a ‘foreign entity or country’.