OPM breach victims could get identity protection for life

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton plan to introduce legislation Monday that would provide lifetime identity protection for the 22.1 million people affected by the Office of Personnel Management breaches disclosed a decade ago, according to bill text first seen by Nextgov/FCW. The RECOVER PII Act aims to prevent the federal government's identity-protection program from expiring Sept. 30. Coverage provided under a 2017 appropriations law required at least 10 years of complimentary identity protection and no less than $5 million in identity-theft insurance. Notices that complimentary coverage will end have been arriving since late last year and will continue through September. The two breaches compromised personnel records for roughly 4.2 million people and background-investigation records for 21.5 million people, with about 3.6 million affected in both incidents, according to the Government Accountability Office. Warner said the threat remains because stolen data including Social Security numbers and security clearance records cannot be retrieved once in the hands of a bad actor. The bill would replace the 10-year limit with coverage lasting for the remainder of each affected person's life while retaining the insurance requirement. It would also allow agencies to reimburse federal employees and contractors for privacy tools and services from their salary-and-expense budgets. Similar bills introduced in previous years have not become law.