US officials say China-sponsored hackers breached federal personnel office

US officials have accused hackers employed by the Chinese government of breaching the computer system of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in December, possibly compromising the personal data of around 4 million current and former federal employees, The Washington Post reported, citing a mix of named and unnamed US officials. The OPM only discovered the breach in April, in which intruders gained access to information including Social Security numbers, job assignments, performance ratings and training information, unnamed officials said. Such information can be used to craft emails designed to fool recipients into opening a link or attachment allowing hackers to gain access to other computer systems.