Judge Says Government Faces ‘Uphill Battle’ to Prove OPM Hack Victims Don’t Have Standing to Sue

The federal government was once again forced to defend itself against accusations of negligence and “reckless indifference” in allowing the personal information of millions of federal employees and other individuals to be hacked in 2015, with a federal court on Friday heard oral arguments in an appeal of an ongoing lawsuit on the matter. Two federal employee unions brought their suit to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a district court dismissed the case last year for lack of standing. The American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union are seeking lifetime credit monitoring and identity theft protection for affected individuals, and NTEU is also aiming to change the way the Office of Personnel Management stores and protects personal data. OPM disclosed two data breaches in 2015, one that exposed the personnel files of all current and former federal employees and another that released the personally identifiable information of all applicants for security clearances, as well as their families.