The Washington Post: Rep. Barbara Comstock, victim of cyberattack, wants firings at OPM

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By Rachel Weiner

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) was one of many U.S. lawmakers grilling officials Wednesday over the massive hack into federal employees' personal data -- even though she doesn't serve on the relevant committee.

Comstock was given a special dispensation to sit in on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing as a possible victim of both the Office of Personnel Management hack and a breach of Internal Revenue Service taxpayer data.

"I've received those same letters as have, more importantly, tens of thousands of my constituents," said Comstock, referring to a notification from the personnel agency saying that her private data may have been hacked. "I also had the unfortunate experience of getting a letter from the IRS saying that my tax information had been compromised."

Comstock represents a Northern Virginia district heavy with federal workers in general and national security workers in particular.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has also said she was among the millions whose Social Security numbers, birthplaces and other personal information may have been uncovered by hackers working for the Chinese government.

Comstock said after the hearing that she was not too concerned about her own information -- she uses an identity protection service, which in the case of a hack, means it would be hard for someone else to appropriate her data for their benefit.

At the same time, she said that like many federal employees, she was wary of filling out an online OPM form that offers credit monitoring, identity theft insurance and other security protections.

Letters from the agency describing the online program come "from out of blue," Comstock said. "I have not done that because I don't have confidence yet and don't know enough to have that confidence. So it makes it difficult for me to tell my constituents" what to do.

Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) has also criticized the quality of support offered to hacking victims.

As one of the last speakers at the hearing, Comstock focused her questions on what she described as a lack of "culture of leadership" at OPM. She asked OPM Director Katherine Archuleta whether she had visited private companies to study their cybersecurity protocols. (As an example, Comstock touted the program in place at Visa, which has a data processing center in her district.

Archuleta said she had not done so but added that there were plans for a summit with private-sector leaders in the near future.

Comstock agreed with many lawmakers on the panel that the leadership at OPM needs to go. "These aren't the people I want to have in battle," she said after the hearing.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D), another Northern Virginia congressman who represents many federal workers, was a rare voice in defense of OPM on Wednesday, saying it was too easy to call for heads to roll when Congress has done too little to address the increasingly aggressive cyberattacks.

In the interview, Comstock agreed that Congress needs to put "more resources" into cybersecurity. But she added that she didn't trust the current leadership to use them properly. "We have to make sure that we have the adequate resources, but that they are led by the right people," she said.

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