WASHINGTON - The cyber-attack, exposed in June, on United States government, allegedly by Chinese hackers, was more severe than initial reports, affecting 'sensitive' information of millions of people, the Obama administration said Thursday.
The Office of Personnel Management, victim of the attack, reported Thursday 'hackers' robbed personal data, including social security numbers and other information of 21.5 million people.
Of these, 19.7 million are people who had applied for jobs in administration or the government and other individuals linked to the public sector, on whom the government ran security checks.
The remaining 1.8 million are families of some of the above.
In addition to social security numbers, the hackers also accessed addresses, financial and health histories.
The 21.5 million affected also include several people who were victims of another "separate, but related" cyber-attack, affecting 4.2 million current and former federal government employees.
The sum of all those affected by these attacks amount to around 7 percent of U.S. population, making it one of the most damaging attacks ever recorded against U.S. administration, both in terms of the number affected and sensitivity of stolen data.
Although, there is no "scientific evidence", voices from U.S. media and politics, suspect a Chinese hand.
According to The Washington Post, "China is building massive databases of Americans' personal information," for "recruiting spies or gaining more information on an adversary."
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