House Dem presses Sessions to provide more information on 2015 OPM data breach

The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is pressing the Justice Department for more information on the 2015 data breach that resulted in hackers stealing the data of millions of federal employees and contractors.

“I write to request further information regarding the first publicly disclosed case filed by the Department of Justice involving the criminal use of information illegally obtained through the 2015 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) wrote in a Tuesday letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

{mosads}“I believe further details about how the defendants obtained the [personally identifiable information] could be useful for the purposes of protecting victims of the breach from further criminal activity,” the Virginia Democrat added. 

The letter comes after The Washington Post reported earlier this month that two people pled guilty  to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in what appears to be the first case involving data stolen in the OPM hack.

The two people, Kariva Cross and Marlon Mc­Knight, revealed in a federal court in Newport News, Va., that they had taken out fake loans using stolen identities, according to the Post.

While the OPM hack has been traced back to the Chinese, it remains unclear how Cross and Mc­Knight, two Maryland natives, obtained the government employees’ information.

Sensitive information was stolen from roughly 21.5 million people through the OPM breach, including Social Security numbers, findings from background interviews with investigators, more than 5 million fingerprints, information on some spouses, and usernames and passwords that were used to fill out background investigation forms.

“I respectfully request a briefing with the Department on how we can better balance the needs of this particular prosecution and related investigations with breach victims’ need to know how their [personally identifiable information] is being obtained by criminals,” Connolly said.