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2015 was a year of countless data breaches. From the Ashley Madison hack in July 2015 to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan's breach of his personal e-mail account, it is clear that people's privacy is no longer safe. However, one data breach stands out due to its size and scope—the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack. OPM fell victim to not only one, but two cybersecurity attacks on its secure information systems. Law enforcement officials conducted an investigation and arrested a group of Chinese hackers responsible for the theft of 21.5 million federal employee's background information and 5.6 million fingerprints. The names of federal employees, their addresses, social security numbers, and other personal records were stolen. By acquiring information about current and past federal employees, these criminals were now in possession of invaluable information to conduct economic espionage. As media outlets picked up on the story of this massive data breach, the question on people's minds was, if the federal government cannot protect people's information, then who can?
Stephanie Gootman (Thu,) studied this question.