The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said on Thursday that hackers had stolen sensitive information – including Social Security numbers – of about 21.5 million people who have undergone background checks for security clearances since 2000.
Those exposed included 19.7 million people who applied for the clearances, plus 1.8 million non-applicants, mostly spouses or co-habitants of applicants, OPM said.
The 21.5 million affected is in addition to information about 4.2 million current and former federal workers stolen in a separate but related incident. There is significant overlap between the two groups.
The United States has identified China as the leading suspect in the massive hacking of the U.S. government agency, an assertion China’s Foreign Ministry dismissed as “absurd logic.”
OPM said in a release that its investigation had found no information “at this time” to suggest any misuse or further dissemination of the information stolen from its systems.
