The Office of Personnel Management’s new senior cyber adviser, Cliff Triplett, is going to play a major role in preventing a recurrence of the major data breaches OPM has recently experienced, according to the office’s leader.
“He is going to be an incredibly valuable resource for advancing our cybersecurity goals, for collaborating with our inter-agency partners for the work we are doing,” said,Acting Director Beth Cobert, who was recently nominated to become the permanent director. She was speaking at the annual public meeting of the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, held Nov. 10.
Cobert added that OPM had to-date mailed approximately 5 million notification letters to federal employees and retirees whose information was compromised in the hack, providing three years of protective identity and credit-monitoring services.
“As someone whose information was taken in the breach, I have actually gotten my letter,” she said. “The letters are being mailed in a sort of randomized order, so my spouse has not gotten his letter yet.”
Cobert said OPM still had 21 million letters that will go out and that it would also be setting up a verification center later this month for those who haven’t received letters to ensure that their information is being protected.
“We are going to be doing it in a way that focuses on the security of the process,” she said. “Given the sensitivity of the population, given the data that was affected in the breach, we’ve got a set of procedures that allow people to self-identify, but also is secure.”
The OPM director said that 5 percent had enrolled for the identity and credit-monitoring services so far, but that was on a rolling average as more letters will be going out.
The council also discussed initiatives for the White House’s Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan, including an ongoing report, due out April 30 that assesses the federal government’s cybersecurity structures and recommendations on how to improve it.
As part of the plan, CHCO’s will have to identify their top five cybersecurity gaps, while DHS will begin piloting an automated cybersecurity hiring tool by the end of November.
“This is clearly a big priority,” Cobert said. “We just need to get this done. I think it is on all of us to say, collectively, how do we take that charge and move forward with it.”
