July 13, 2015
The personal data of an estimated 21.5 million federal employees of the United States and their families was compromised by a cyberattack at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
This OPM breach is catastrophic to the US, both for national security and for the individuals whose information has been compromised. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced China is to blame, and this is not the first time the US is blaming China for ongoing cyber-espionage and cyberattacks.
For Europeans, it will be interesting to see how the US will react. Earlier in 2015, the US declared a strong cyber-sanction policy against foreign nation-state hackers and published cyber-deterrence guidelines in the Pentagon’s
new cyber-strategy. So, how will the US act now? It will show an example to the rest of the world for similar situations in the future.