Cybersecurity Policy Report, DOGE Cuts Could Leave OPM Data Breach Victims Unprotected, Warner Fears, (May 19, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Office of Personnel Management
Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) is urging the Office of Personnel Management to continue to provide federally funded identity theft protection to the 21.5 million victims of the 2015 OPM data breach through Sept. 30, 2026.
“The federal workforce was dangerously exposed by the 2015 OPM breach, and millions of impacted individuals will continue to be at risk because of the breach, likely for the remainder of their lives,” Sen. Warner said in a letter sent Friday to Charles Ezell, OPM’s acting director.
“In addition to Social Security numbers, birthdates, and addresses, there were also 1.1 million sets of fingerprints and detailed financial and health records exposed—some of the most valuable information today on the dark web,” he noted.
The recent personnel cuts at OPM orchestrated by the White House Department of Government Efficiency have left him “deeply concerned that OPM is planning to curtail identity theft monitoring for millions of public servants and their families whose information was compromised in 2015,” Sen. Warner told Mr. Ezell.
“I urge you to ensure that identity theft protection services for the impacted individuals from the 2015 OPM breach continue, as required by law,” he said.
“Any attempt to prematurely phase out services to the victims of the 2015 OPM breach will introduce tremendous risk to former and current federal employees and create an opportunity for America’s adversaries and criminals to target and potentially further compromise millions of Americans,” he added.
He asked Mr. Ezell to notify him and the relevant congressional committees if OPM decides “to alter or terminate the current contract(s) protecting over 21 million Americans from identity theft as a result of the 2015 OPM breach.”
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