DOGE could scrap identity protections for those impacted by OPM breach, senator warns
A top Senate Intelligence Democrat is warning the Office of Personnel Management against cancelling identity protection services that have been provided to current and former federal employees since their data was exposed in the massive 2015 OPM data breach.
In a letter sent Friday to OPM acting Director Charles Ezell, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed concerns about Department of Government Efficiency-instituted cuts to the personnel agency and plans that it may have to “curtail identity theft monitoring for millions of public servants and their families whose information was compromised in 2015.”
“I urge you to ensure that identity theft protection services for the impacted individuals from the 2015 OPM breach continue, as required by law,” wrote Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The breach of OPM servers by Chinese-backed hackers rocked Washington and the federal workforce a decade ago, as the Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses and other personal information of more than 21 million individuals were exposed.
At the time, Warner, his Virginia Senate colleague Tim Kaine and then-Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland co-sponsored the RECOVER Act to provide identity protection services to those impacted by the OPM breach.
Congress appropriated funds for those services “for a period of not less than 10 years.” A 2017 Government Accountability Office report found that OPM had overpaid for an identity theft insurance program, but the protections have continued and the expiration of those contracts now looms at the end of fiscal 2026.
According to Warner, “DOGE has signaled that these protections may be in jeopardy.”
“Any attempt to prematurely phase out services to the victims of the 2015 OPM breach will introduce tremendous risk to former and current federal employees and create an opportunity for America’s adversaries and criminals to target and potentially further compromise millions of Americans,” Warner wrote, adding that 1.1 million sets of fingerprints plus detailed financial and health records were also exposed.
If OPM decides to “alter or terminate” the current identity protection contracts, Warner asks Ezell to inform his office and relevant congressional committees as soon as he makes a decision.
