One thing I theorize from this is that information on scores of millions of U.S. citizens has been given to the Chinese Government. Things like names, addresses, phone numbers, income, political affiliation, occupation, service in the military, credit history.
OPM (Office of Personell Management) Hack #1
OPM Hack #2
both were considered to have been done by China.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-opm-hack-far-worse-you-imagine
snip...
“...OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour acknowledged that the information compromised in the data breach included “SF-86 data as well as clearance adjudication information.” This was a particularly dismaying disclosure. Although most media attention focused on the SF-86 data exfiltration, adjudication data is far more comprehensive and important. The adjudicative guidelines, established for all individuals “who require access to classified information,” are extraordinarily broad. They apply to all “persons being considered for initial or continued eligibility for access to classified information” and “are to be used by government departments and agencies in all final clearance determinations.
Under these guidelines, the scope of the information required for adjudication vastly exceeds that required by an SF-86. The desiderata ranges from information on “sexual behavior” that “reflects lack of discretion or judgment” to evidence of “foreign influence,” including a broad definition of “risk of foreign exploitation” associated with mere “contact with a foreign family member.” For instance, the information collected to adjudicate a simple Top Secret single-scope background investigation includes a “Personal Subject Interview” and “interviews with neighbors, employers, educators, references and spouses/cohabitants.” It also includes “record checks with local law enforcement where the individual lived, worked, or went to school in the past 10 years.” None this information is included on a standard SF-86.
Although the theft of fingerprint data has been widely reported, there is still another critical component of the adjudication dataset that has been largely overlooked. Certain types of security clearances require the individual to pass a polygraph examination, which can be extraordinarily intrusive and far exceed the subject matter of an SF-86. One former U.S. official noted that “a polygrapher once asked if he’d ever practiced bestiality.” Another said that “he was asked about what contacts he’d had with journalists, including in a social setting. All of the data collected during a polygraph is part of the adjudication data set. While we do not know where and how the full set of polygraph data is stored, adjudication data does include at least some polygraph information and officials have confirmed some polygraph data is shared with OPM.
What does this mean for someone like me, who has had a security clearance for over three decades? Given that the data sets stolen in the OPM go back to 1985, the information known to the attacker potentially includes all data collected during my initial clearance process and every comprehensive mandatory update, including all of the data from multiple polygraph examinations.”
They need to act quickly.
The companies involved should see what these individuals have been doing, get them arrested for espionage. The US now has a basis to arrest them for lying on their visa applications.