USA TODAY International Edition
Plame calls breach a disaster
CIA operatives could be compromised, former agent warns
If the Chinese are behind the massive hacks against the federal Office of Personnel Management, they have a wealth of information to use in counterintelligence efforts against the United States, former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame told USA TODAY on Monday.
“Information is power,” said Plame, who serves on the advisory board for Global Data Sentinel, a cyber security firm.
“When you have access to information about the friends, family members and health issues of someone who works for the U. S. government, you can use that to try to get close to that person and gather intelligence,” she said. “To my mind, the OPM breach is absolutely catastrophic for our national security.”
The hack of background check records stored in the OPM’s systems compromised the data of about 21.5 million people. The victims of that hack — one of two recently revealed at the agency — include 19.7 million people who applied for background investigations needed for jobs requiring a security clearance. It also affected 1.8 million others — mainly spouses and cohabitants of the applicants.
The CIA keeps the background check files of its employees separate from the OPM, Plame said. That doesn’t mean that no undercover CIA agents had their information compromised, she said. An undercover CIA operative may have a cover job working for the State Department or other government agency that uses the OPM system, according to Plame.
“It’s hard enough to build and maintain a really good cover,” Plame said. “This has made it multiple times more difficult.”
Plame knows from experience. Twelve years ago, Washington
Post columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame’s identity as an undercover CIA agent.
“To say this is creating a huge headache is an understatement, truly,” Plame said of the OPM hacks. “They ( the hackers) are going to be able to exploit this data for decades.”
“It’s hard enough to build and maintain a really good cover. This has made it multiple times more difficult.”