The Office of Personnel Management has changed its database privacy rules to allow federal investigators to analyze the agency’s data repositories for security breach, Nextgov reported Monday.
Aliya Sternstein writes the new policy lets OPM share information with authorities when the agency suspects or discovers intrusion into multiple federal employee records storage systems.
“This new routine use was added as part of OPM’s continuing comprehensive review,” Sam Schumach, an OPM spokesperson, told Nextgov.
The agency will accept public comments on the access rights through Aug 17.
OPM decided to open its systems for outside expert investigation after it found possible entryways for hackers to enter at least three agency-run data banks, according to Sternstein’s article.
The policy covers access to general and executive personnel records, health claims data warehouse, federal competency assessment tool and many other files, the report said.
