With Data Breaches, Bad News Can Show up Well Down the Road

The revelation that the data breach at the U.S. government’s personnel office was actually much worse than the government originally thought is following a familiar script.

Witnesses, from left; Dr. Andy Ozment, assistant secretary, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, National Program Preparedness Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, Tony Scott-chief information officer, Office of E-Government and Information Technology, Office of Management and Budget, and Sylvia Burns, chief information officer, Department of the Interior, testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee's hearing on the Office of Personnel Management data breach, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2015. AP Photo/Cliff Owen

NEW YORK — The revelation that the data breach at the U.S. government’s personnel office was actually much worse than the government originally thought is following a familiar script.

That’s been the case in many recent high-profile hackings at major U.S. companies. Target, Home Depot and TJX all had to announce additional bad news weeks after going public with their breaches.

The Obama administration said Thursday that hackers stole Social Security numbers from more than 21 million people and took other sensitive information when government computer systems were compromised. That’s up from the 14 million figure investigators gave The Associated Press last month.

Any organization that has personal identification information needs to know exactly what they have and where they have it.

— Adam Levin, Chairman and founder of the security firm IDT911 Consulting