back to article National Archives finds OPM-style intrusion: No data theft found, though

The US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has discovered illicit activity on three of its desktop computers, which may have been compromised in much the same manner as those of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The OPM intrusion lead to an as-yet unidentified group getting hold of millions of federal …

  1. Mark 85

    Oh boy... one more time with more probably in the wings...

    There's something to be said for typewriter's, paper, and old style mainframes with dedicated terminals and dedicated networks.

    Which, I guess, is something I don't really comprehend... why give everyone in every office, government or private, internet access? That is just begging from problems, from wasting time to a large attack surface.

    The time-wasting is something that probably can't be controlled. Before computers there was the water-cooler, after computers but before internet access was common there was Solitare.

    1. RobHib

      @Mark 85 -- Re: Oh boy... one more time with more probably in the wings...

      The difference here of course is that most of the National Archives should be open and readily available to the public. Unfortunately, too many records are either mediated and or unavailable from regular/casual internet access.

      (And, from personal experience, I'm not talking about embargoed/sensitive files either. In the past, I've had considerable difficulties getting historic photographs and related documents that are not classified, as most are simply not available for regular on-line access. Perhaps the perpetrator had a similar bad experience and tried to solve the problem with an unorthodox approach.) ;-)

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: @Mark 85 -- Oh boy... one more time with more probably in the wings...

        @RobHib

        I'd come to the same personal experience based conclusion as you - except that when I read the headline I thought it applied to the UK National Archives.

  2. FrankAlphaXII

    NARA handles service members records after they've left the armed forces after a period of time. It would definitely help with cross referencing information with everything they got out of copying all of those SF-86s if they're really trying to create fake credentials or recruit spies.

    If this was at St. Louis, that's probably pretty likely what they were after since your personnel file has your MOS, rating or AFSC on the first page, I think my 201 even has a copy of my SF-86 in it as well. If they're indeed trying to find people to sell information to them it would make sense to nail the archives, especially at that center.

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