June 19, 2015
Computer security firm FireEye has identified a Chinese group that may have carried out a devastating hacking attack against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management last year, leading to the theft of information on millions of federal employees and retirees. The hack was first disclosed earlier this month.
The group, based in China, is not the one known as “Deep Panda” that has been tied to the Chinese military and an attack on insurer Anthem Health earlier this year. It is instead another group whose activities FireEye has monitored since 2013 and that specializes in attacks that are meant to gather troves of personally identifiable information, or PII. The group focuses its attention and efforts on the health insurance and travel industries. FireEye did not assign a name to the group.