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Chinese hackers turn over US government departments

by on10 July 2014

They know who works there

Chinese hackers broke into the computer networks of a United States government agency that keeps the personal information of all federal employees.

According to the New York Times the attack happened in March. The hackers appeared to be targeting files on tens of thousands of employees who applied for top-secret security clearances. The attackers hit the databases of the Office of Personnel Management before federal authorities detected the threat and blocked them.

So far it is not clear if the hackers found anything useful, but if they did see the security clearances list they would also have found information on the applicants foreign contacts, previous jobs and personal information like past drug use. It is possible that the hack came after the United States charged five Chinese military officers, accusing them of hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets.

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