Obama administration officials defined the hack of Office of Personnel Management employee documents as two distinct breaches, a decision that allowed officials to initially deny millions of the government’s most sensitive employee security records had been stolen, according to officials familiar with the matter.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation suspect China was behind the hack of OPM databases, and those hackers accessed not only personnel files but security clearance forms, which contain information that foreign intelligence agencies could use to target espionage operations, according to officials. Chinese officials have said they weren’t involved.
The administration disclosed the breach of personnel files on June 4 but not the security clearance theft, contrary to what investigators probing the theft already knew.
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