MORE HACKING – MAYBE ANOTHER OPM DIRECTOR
Now that Katherine Archuleta, former Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), has left the premises and Beth Cobert has taken the helms, is personnel data for Federal active employees, retirees and their families any safer?  Virginia Senator Mark Warner called for Archuleta’s resignation citing that the agency was broken. Under extreme pressure and lack of confidence in her ability to manage one of the most important aspects of her job, privacy and security of employee records, Archuleta resigned from her post at OPM in July.
Cobert who comes from the White House Office of Management and Budget and has worked as a consultant for McKinsey and Company for more than three decades with its global presence in industries from Advanced Electronics to Sustainability and Resource Productivity still begs to answer, will she be able to put strategies in place to stop cyber attacks and assure Federal employees and their families that their critical information is safeguarded?
There are lots of questions to be asked, one being should the Director of OPM be responsible for cyber security and policing hackers. The Director of OPM has responsibility for safeguarding the personnel records of all government employees and their families. That is bold statement, but in actually, is it really feasible under the present structure of the OPM to expect the Director to fix security problems that exist throughout government. OPM is not the only Federal agency who has had data security breaches but it is the only agency charged with personnel oversight for the entire Federal workforce and there in lies the difference and where the real responsibility for privacy and security comes into play to protect the workforce.
Letters are still going out to Federal employees under the direction of the new head of OPM providing three years of services to victims of cybercrime. The OPM data security breach was the largest cybercrime ever against our national government impacting some 21.5 millions individuals and their families.  The services are provided to the victims at no cost whose Social Security numbers and other sensitive information were imperiled as a part of government background investigations conducted to assess employment suitability of individuals seeking work in the Federal service.
Will Beth Cobert be able to protect the Federal workforce from cybercrimes or will the Senate ask for another OPM’s Director’s head if it happens again. The game in Washington and called – Wait and See.
P.S. Always Remember to Share What You Know
Dianna Tafazoli
