NAPS responds to data breach at the Office of Personnel Management

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as the target of a cyber-attack that may have compromised the personal information of current and former Federal and Postal employees. With the potential risk to our members, we are issuing the following guidance for our retired members to follow in order to safeguard themselves.

Beginning June 8 and continuing through June 19, OPM will be sending notifications to approximately 4 million individuals whose private information was potentially compromised in this incident.  The email will come from opmcio@csid.com and it will contain information regarding credit monitoring and identity theft protection services being provided to those Federal employees impacted by the data breach. In the event OPM does not have an email address for the individual on file, a standard letter will be sent via the U.S. Postal Service.

In order to mitigate the risk of fraud and identity theft, OPM is offering affected individuals credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance with CSID, a company that specializes in identity theft protection and fraud resolution.  This comprehensive, 18-month membership includes credit report access, credit monitoring, identity theft insurance, and recovery services and is available immediately at no cost to affected individuals identified by OPM. We also suggest taking the following steps:

• Monitor financial account statements and immediately report any suspicious or unusual activity to financial institutions.
• Request a free credit report at http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com (external link) or by calling 1-877-322-8228.  Consumers are entitled by law to one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit bureaus – Equifax®, Experian®, and TransUnion® – for a total of three reports every year.  Contact information for the credit bureaus can be found on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website, http://www.ftc.gov (external link).
• Review resources provided on the FTC identity theft website, http://www.identitytheft.gov (external link).  The FTC maintains a variety of consumer publications providing comprehensive information on computer intrusions and identity theft.
• You may place a fraud alert on your credit file to let creditors know to contact you before opening a new account in your name.  Simply call TransUnion® at 1-800-680-7289 to place this alert.  TransUnion® will then notify the other two credit bureaus on your behalf.

NAPS along with our partners in the Federal/Postal Coalition will be working with OPM to not only ensure that all steps are taken to protect those who were impacted, but to also ensure that appropriate measures are in place to ensure that this type of event does not occur again.