WASHINGTON
The director of a US agency resigned Friday in the wake of a computer hack that compromised the personal information of millions of federal workers.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) chief Katherine Archuleta had insisted she would not resign when the breach was disclosed weeks ago but just Thursday it was revealed that the number of current and former employees who were put at risk was much higher than initially believed – as many as 22 million.
There is a lot of speculation that China is behind the attack, however, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he didn’t have any information to share publicly about who may have been responsible.
President Barack Obama accepted Archuleta's resignation and assigned Beth Cobert to head the agency on an acting basis.
"So the president believes that she is, at least on an acting basis, is the right person for the job while we search for a permanent replacement for Director Archuleta," Earnest said.
The OPM attack is considered the worst-ever hacking of U.S. government computer systems.
