The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has filed a class action lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management regarding the recent cyberattacks that potentially exposed the personal data of as many as 18 million current and former federal employees.
The suit names Director Katherine Archuleta, Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour, and Keypoint Government Solutions as defendants.
In a joint statement, AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr., National Secretary-Treasurer Eugene Hudson Jr., and National Vice President for Women and Fair Practices Augusta Y. Thomas said:
Since 2007, officials at OPM have been alerted to their lackluster data security policies and protocols and failed to take appropriate steps to safeguard the information. Although they were forewarned about the potential catastrophe that government employees faced, OPM’s data security got worse rather than better.
Despite putting government employees and their loved ones at significant personal and financial risk, OPM has failed to reveal the full scope of who was specifically impacted by the data breach and the extent of the information taken. Additionally, the credit monitoring services that OPM provided have not only fallen short, but actually created more potential security risks for employees.
AFGE is working with its members to ascertain the breadth of the breach and obtain feedback on OPM’s response. Since the agency is unwilling to provide adequate assistance, AFGE is taking unprecedented steps to gather more information for our members and hold the agency accountable.
