Millions of Americans who applied to work for the federal government — whether they were eventually hired or not — will get letters in the mail within the next 12 weeks confirming that their personal information was stolen.
On Sept. 30, the Office of Personnel Management shipped the first set of notices to the estimated 21.5 million affected by the breach of its networks.
Over the next three months, those affected will receive a letter detailing the identity protection and credit monitoring services being offered and an individual PIN to be used to enroll.
The protection services are being offered through ID Experts, the contractors chosen off of the General Services Administration’s new breach response blanket purchase agreement.
“I understand that many of you are frustrated and concerned and would like to receive this information soon,” Cobert wrote in an Oct. 1 blog post. “My personal data was also stolen in this breach and I am eager to get my notification letter as soon as possible so that I can sign up for [identity protection] services. However, given the sensitive nature of the database that was breached — and the sheer volume of people affected — we are all going to have to be patient throughout this notification process.”
Those who do not receive a letter but still think their information was compromised will be able to reach out to a verification center currently being set up.
In her blog post, Cobert stressed that neither OPM nor ID Experts will contact anyone asking to confirm personal information. Any such requests should be treated as spear-phishing attempts.
