The head of the U.S. government’s personnel office resigned abruptly on Friday, bowing to widespread calls for her to step down following a massive government data breach on her watch.

Katherine Archuleta, director of the federal Office of Personnel Management, submitted her resignation to President Barack Obama on Friday morning, the White House said.

She’ll be replaced on a temporary basis by the agency’s deputy director, Beth Cobert, who will step into the role on Saturday.

Scope of the breach

The OPM said Thursday that hackers have stolen sensitive information involving 21.5 million people from federal government databases.

The scope of the data breach, believed to be the biggest in U.S. history, has grown dramatically since the government first disclosed earlier this year that hackers had gotten into OPM’s personnel database and stolen the records of about 4.2 million people.

Officials acknowledged a second “separate but related” breach of the systems holding private data that individuals submit during background investigations to obtain security clearances.

This second incident, OPM said, involved 19.7 million people who underwent background checks and 1.8 million of their spouses and others who never applied for security clearances. Among the data the hackers stole were criminal, financial, health, employment and residency histories, as well as information about their families and acquaintances.

The first attack focused on the background investigation data of current and former employees.

Investigation ongoing

Various officials have privately blamed China for the hacking, but when asked in a conference call whether China is responsible, U.S. National Security Council official Michael Daniel said an investigation into the breach is ongoing. He would not comment on who might have been responsible.

Archuleta said her agency “has moved swiftly and thoroughly to assess the breach, analyze what data may have been stolen, and identify those individuals who may be affected.

“There is no information to suggest any misuse or further dissemination of the information that was stolen from OPM’s system,” she added. “We have not been notified of anyone being affected by this — no evidence that this data has been used anywhere.”

The U.S. has blamed China for a series of high-profile cyber attacks on U.S. government and business entities in recent years. China has strongly denied the allegations.

Some material for this report came from AP
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