In a letter addressed to President Obama, a group of 18 congressmen asked the president to remove two leading IT officials from the Office of Personnel Management following the cyberattack that compromised up to 4.2 million individuals' personal information.
The letter seeks the removal of OPM Director Katherine Archuleta and OPM CIO Donna Seymour, saying the data breach could have been prevented. "Director Archuleta and her leadership team failed to correct serious vulnerabilities to OPM's network and cybersecurity posture despite repeated and urgent warnings from OPM's Inspector General that date back to 2007, at least," reads the letter.
The OPM had received warnings about risks in information systems, yet it continued to operate the systems without valid authorizations in place, according to the letter, which continues to say there is no excuse for not encrypting data and requiring multi-factor authentication.
"Simply put, the recent breach was entirely foreseeable, and Director Archuleta and CIO Donna Seymour failed to take steps to prevent it from happening despite repeated warnings," reads the letter. The lawmakers write they have "lost confidence" in both Ms. Archuleta and Ms. Seymour's ability to secure and protect the sensitive information of Americans.
"We respectfully request that you address this serious issue by removing Director Archuleta and Ms. Seymour from their positions," they conclude.
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