KHON2 - Many in Hawaii Could Be Affected by Federal Data Breach, Potential Victims Will Be Notified

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by Kristine Uyeno

Officials are still trying to figure out how many Hawaii residents may have been affected in a federal data breach, but lawmakers believe it could be a large number.

"I think once they have a grasp on that, then they'll be able to identify exactly how many people here in Hawaii whose personal information may have been compromised in this terrible hack," said U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. "When you look at how many federal employees we have here in Hawaii, I think the potential is great."

"What do you tell people who are wondering what Congress is doing exactly to protect me and my information?" KHON2 asked.

"There's been legislation that's been looked at through Congress on how to best address this issue," Gabbard said.

Hawaii Rep. Mark Takai said an amendment to a bill will be heard next week to make sure these types of data breaches don't occur.

"For the (Office of Personnel Management) network to be exposed to this only brings to light a federal system that is supposed to be impenetrable to these type of hackers," he said.

Both lawmakers said leaders in Washington need to dedicate more resources to strengthen the cybersecurity infrastructure.

People who might have been affected will be contacted next week and will be offered credit and identity protection.

"Credit monitoring is when a company will look to see if anything fishy is happening on your credit report, so if someone opens up a car loan in another state or a bunch of credit cards happen to open, they will alert you," said Tim Caminos with the Better Business Bureau of Hawaii.

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