Remember the data breaches that occurred at the Office of Personnel Management? They left the personal data of millions of current and former federal employees vulnerable, including more sensitive data, such as fingerprints.
As part of the clean up process from the breaches, free identity theft protection was provided, but it is currently scheduled to only last through fiscal year 2026.
One Congresswoman is making a second effort to change that. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) recently reintroduced the Reducing the Effects of the Cyberattack on OPM Victims Emergency Response (RECOVER) Act (H.R. 5765) in conjunction with Public Service Recognition Week.
The legislation would provide free lifetime identity protection coverage to current, former and prospective federal employees and contractors whose Social Security numbers were compromised in the 2015 OPM data breaches.
The bill was previously introduced in 2015, but failed to advance.
“Although at our urging Congress took a first step to protect the identities of federal workers affected by the OPM data breaches, only lifetime identity protection coverage will give them the complete peace of mind they deserve,” Norton said. “There is no limit to the duration of when the compromised personally identifiable information can be used. The federal government is responsible for the nerve-racking breaches and Congress has an obligation to make affected employees whole by passing our bill.”
