As many as 14 million current and former civilian US government employees had their personal information exposed to hackers, according to two people who were briefed on the investigation, a far higher figure than the 4 million the Obama administration initially disclosed.
The newer estimates put the number of compromised records at between 9 million and 14 million going back to the 1980s, said one congressional official and one former US official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because information disclosed in the confidential briefings includes classified details of the investigation.
There are about 4.2 million federal employees, so the majority of the records exposed relate to former employees.
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Contractor information also has been stolen, officials said.
The latest revelation came a day after a major union said the cyber theft is more damaging than it first appeared, asserting that hackers stole personnel data and Social Security numbers for all the federal workers in a central personnel database.
The Obama administration had acknowledged that up to 4 million current and former employees whose information resides in the Office of Personnel Management server are affected by the December cyber breach, but it had been vague about exactly what was taken.
But the American Federation of Government Employees said in a letter Thursday that it believes that "the hackers are now in possession of all personnel data for every federal employee, every federal retiree, and up to 1 million former federal employees."
The OPM data file contains the records of most federal civilian employees, though not members of Congress and their staffs, members of the military or staff of the intelligence agencies.
The union believes the hackers stole military records and veterans' status information, address, birth date, job and pay history, health insurance, life insurance, and pension information; and age, gender and race data, he said.
Also Thursday, Sen Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic Senate leader, said that the hack was carried out by "the Chinese" without specifying whether he meant the Chinese government or individuals.
Reid is one of eight lawmakers briefed on the most secret intelligence information. US officials have declined to publicly blame China, which has denied involvement.
The union, which does not have direct access to the investigation, said it is basing its assessment on "sketchy" information provided by OPM. The agency has sought to downplay the damage, saying what was taken "could include" personnel file information such as Social Security numbers and birth dates.
