Katherine Archuleta, the embattled head of the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM), is resigning her post. She was brought down by a massive data breach that stole the information of 21.5 million federal employees, contractors, and job applicants, and their families.
Archuleta has been under fire since June 4, when OPM first disclosed the theft of data for 4.2 million people.
She was initially defiant against bipartisan calls for her to step down, arguing that the massive leak was only discovered in the first place because of security improvements OPM had made under her leadership. But Thursday’s revelation of a second, even more massive security breach proved too much for her to overcome, as even Democratic lawmakers turned against her.
The second breach, Achuletta told Congress, began in May 2014 and wasn’t discovered for an entire year. The leaks have led two federal workers unions to file lawsuits against OPM over the loss of their personal information.
The exact culprit for the leaks is unknown, but the intelligence community has openly speculated that Chinese hackers may be responsible.
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