There is finally a bill on the table to provide lifetime protection against identity theft for anyone who was affected by the Office of Personnel Management’s data breach. The bill was submitted by senators representing Washington, D.C.
After OPM announced that 22 million current and former employees had their personal information stolen, Maryland Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski teamed up with Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner to form a plan. That plan came in the form of the “Reducing the Effects of the Cyberattack on OPM Victims Emergency Response Act of 2015,” also known as the RECOVER Act.
The bill, if passed, would provide identity theft monitoring for life to anyone affected, and would also ensure that if a victim’s identity was stolen due to the breach, they would be entitled to no less than $5 million in insurance.
This bill aims to go beyond the measly package being offered by OPM, which will only provide free credit and identity monitoring for three years to those affected. In a press release, the four Democratic senators called OPM out for providing an offer which was “severely lacking in the duration and extent of coverage for those who had their most sensitive information stolen off the government system.”
The senators believe that their plan provides not only better duration, but better coverage to those affected. They said that the victims do not have confidence in OPM’s ability to provide them with any protection due to the nature of the attack.
“The announcement that OPM’s data breach compromised the personal data of 21.5 million federal employees, retirees and their families is as outrageous and unacceptable as it is devastating,” Mikulski said.
“The RECOVER Act allows us to provide these individuals with reasonable protections and insurance coverage in the event of identity theft,” Warner said. “I cannot overstate the national security implications of this breach, or the very real concerns of thousands of Virginians who have since learned that their personal information was put at risk.”
The bill has gained the support of numerous organizations which have filed lawsuits against OPM. CNN reports that identity fraud affects one person every 42 seconds, with 13 million Americans compromised in 2013. The victims of this breach face a very real fear of identity theft, and the Senators hope that this bill will provide them and their families with peace of mind.
“Private-sector cyberhacks and cyberattacks have become too commonplace, but when the federal government’s own computer system shows its vulnerabilities to the world, we have a responsibility to protect the people who have been put at risk,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, who sponsored the bill.
The director of OPM, Katherine Archuleta, has since resigned.