NTEU Leader Seeks Immediate Answers from OPM on Cyberattack

Press Release June 15, 2015

Washington, D.C.—The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) asked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to provide an immediate briefing about the latest developments in the massive cyberattacks on federal personnel records.

NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley wrote to OPM Director Katherine Archuleta seeking additional information about the agency’s notification on Friday that a second data breach may have compromised additional personnel records beyond the originally-disclosed number of 4 million federal employees and retirees.

Kelley called the latest notification “extremely disturbing to the federal community.”

OPM’s Friday announcement revealed that highly-detailed personal information, including details about family members, finances and medical histories, apparently was potentially compromised. It was contained in systems that include information related to background investigations of current, former and prospective federal employees, as well as other individuals for whom federal background investigations were conducted.

“Our members need to be immediately provided with the overall notification plan, and to begin receiving these notices so that they can take the necessary next steps to protect themselves and their families,” Kelley wrote. “This is particularly the case given the highly detailed personal history, family, medical and financial information has apparently been compromised.”

The NTEU president also asked OPM to provide “immediate confirmation of exactly what type of information was hacked and who is at risk.”

She also urged OPM to notify family members and others whose details are also part of the federal personnel records and provide them with credit-monitoring and identity-theft protection services. NTEU would like the time period for credit-monitoring and identity-theft protection extended.

Additionally, NTEU recommended to OPM the establishment of a system where individuals who have not received a notice can affirmatively verify whether or not they are affected.

She also urged a governmentwide directive to allow all employees access to their agency’s computers to apply for credit monitoring.

NTEU, the nation’s largest independent federal union, represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.

Share: