A Florida judge is suing the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) over an alleged breach in security that saw government employees’ information potentially released.
Teresa McGarry filed the lawsuit Aug. 7 in United States District Court in Colorado against the OPM as well as the United States Department of Homeland Security and Keypoint Government Solutions, Inc.
The lawsuit claims there were at least two security breaches of OPM’s systems, which compromised about 21.5 million federal applicants’ personal and security files. The United States Office of the Inspector General conducted annual audits of the office’s cyber security and identified weaknesses back in 2007, according to the lawsuit.
“Since at least 2007, OPM has been on notice of significant deficiencies in its cyber security protocol,” the lawsuit said. “OPM not only failed to cure the weaknesses, but OIG found that in many areas OPM’s performance actually got worse.”
The lawsuit is seeking class status for those government employees whose data could have been compromised. McGarry is also seeking damages in excess of $5 million plus court costs.
She is represented by Daneil M. Reilly and Ellie Lockwood of Reilly Pozner LLP in Denver, and Joseph C. Kohn, Denis F. Sheils and Barbara L. Gibson of Kohn, Swift & Graft, P.C. in Philadelphia.
United States District Court for the District of Colorado case number 1:15-cv-01705-JLK