"Senator: SEAL Team 6 At Risk After OPM Hack"

2015-07-17T13:21:27-04:00

From: Free Beacon
--
Sen. John Boozman (R., Ark.) said personal information on the Navy’s most elite special operations team could be in the hands of America’s adversaries following the cyber attack on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Boozman told a gathering of reporters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that the attacks, suspected to have originated from China, targeted the “most sensitive information we have.”

“The breach there was really staggering, this magnitude some of the most sensitive information,” Boozman said. “A lot of people when you fill out a form to get a top security clearance, you’re talking about a 120 plus page form.”

The security breaches have left the personal information of roughly 22 million federal employees in the hands of hackers, including Social Security numbers, fingerprints, and passwords.

Individuals applying for security clearances include members of SEAL Team 6.

“The second breach, you’ve got military personnel,” Boozman said. “We might have a situation, you never know, SEAL Team 6, their records are in there because they went through the same security clearance.”

“So it’s just really very, very serious,” he said.

The Arkansas senator criticized the lack of cybersecurity within OPM, saying the agency “didn’t even know how many servers they had.”

“We spend $82 billion a year on IT, $82 billion a year and we have very little to show for it,” Boozman said. “But I think it’s the tip of the iceberg, certainly as a committee we’re going to look—if we need to give them more money, we’ll do whatever it takes to keep these things safe.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/senator-seal-team-6-at-risk-after-opm-hack/se

Response by PO2 Mark Saffell made Jul 17 at 2015 1:29 PM

2015-07-17T13:29:15-04:00

Makes you wonder if there IT's are smarter than ours if ours are just typical big government that dont really care. This is unacceptable.

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Jul 17 at 2015 1:39 PM

2015-07-17T13:39:46-04:00

Our Seals have been at great risk since the trend lately of their former ranks writing tell all books. I have read most of them. The stories are all amazing, but I've been shocked by how many operational details have been made public. Ditto for movies such as Lone Survivor and American Sniper.

If these media are releasing so much about operations, what's left? Do the SpecOps folks have any secrets left?

Response by PO1 John Miller made Jul 17 at 2015 1:41 PM

2015-07-17T13:41:26-04:00

Everybody's information is at risk, not just past and present members of "SEAL Team 6." You would think Senator Boozman would know that there is no such thing as SEAL Team 6.

Response by SGT Jeremiah B. made Jul 17 at 2015 1:46 PM

2015-07-17T13:46:52-04:00

Senator Boozman is clearly grandstanding for dramatic effect. I would HOPE that any personnel in classified roles would not have any indication of that role in their OPM file.

Response by SN Greg Wright made Jul 17 at 2015 1:56 PM

2015-07-17T13:56:21-04:00

Something really needs to be done about China's hacking incursions. I believe we should categorize it as an act of war -- because you can bet that info will be USED in an actual conflict if one comes. And this is just practice -- it's nearly certain they can do things that they don't dare to in the absence of conflict: overload power grids, make reactors run awry, mess with dams....all stuff that's computer-driven. So: you want to invade US networks? We invade all those little islands you want so badly. Or something.

Response by PO1 Sojourner "Chancy" Phillips made Jul 17 at 2015 10:46 PM

2015-07-17T22:46:45-04:00

Why do these knuckleheads just concentrate on the units they think are "cool"? Every person that has ever submitted for a clearance is at risk.

Response by PO2 Travis Shimon made Jul 18 at 2015 7:54 AM

2015-07-18T07:54:55-04:00

This money may be spent for IT security but there is not enough training for the IT security people in the DoD, they aren't searching out the right people for protecting our networks, we need patriotic hackers to fight the holes in our infrastructure that is allowing these foreign hackers to get into the systems. Let's also not forget how the military is forcing out all the experienced personnel and people who want to be there in favor of poorly trained boots. Anyone going into it for the military needs to be trained in security, hacking, code, and numerous other disciplines to be qualified to safe guard our networks. IT specialist deserve to be trained just as long and as strict as we train our SO specialists. It's funny how everyone on the hill needs or wants someone to blame when things go wrong but point out the problems everywhere but where they truly originate from and that is our broken government. They misappropriate billions into their own pockets and their friends pockets and wonder why things aren't working when not even pennies get to where they are needed.

Response by PO2 Leonard Anderson made Jul 18 at 2015 11:38 AM

2015-07-18T11:38:46-04:00

Senator there is much more at risk then seal team 6.our whole nation is at risk.you politicians voted to remove arms from soft targets across this country.we are being cyber attacked from north Korea.china.Isis etc..we need a great leader now to squash and eliminate these issues.