Today the Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing concerning the recent U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach. Congressman Steve Russell (OK-5) questioned OPM’s Director, Kathleen Archuleta on the apparent negligence that lead to the breach.
Leading up to his questions, Congressman Russell said, “In this testimony here today, we heard statements that, ‘We did not encrypt because we thought they might be able to decrypt or decipher.’ That is just baffling to me. There was another statement I heard earlier today that said, ‘Had we not established the systems, we would never have known about the breach.’ That is tantamount in saying, ‘If we had not watered our flowerbeds, we would have never seen the muddy foot prints on the open windowsill.’ I mean this is absolute negligence that puts the lives of Americans at risk and also foreign nationals that interact with these Americans.”
