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It’s not unique to the federal government,” said Tony Scott, who spent 35 years in the private sector running systems at companies such as Microsoft Corp, Walt Disney Co and General Motors Co. Scott was named as the federal CIO in February and knew from the start that stepping up cyber defenses would be a focus. The hacks have created a political firestorm and led on Friday to the resignation of the chief of the Office of Personnel Management as Americans questioned the security of government-housed data. Scott began reviewing the status of cyber security at government agencies early in his tenure.

A robust cyber security insurance policy can be tricky to procure, even for the most meticulous wealth management firms. Interest in cyber insurance has surged over the past year following a number of high-profile hackings, including one announced earlier this month involving the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In response, many industries and the financial services industry in particular, have stepped up their vigilance against cyber crimes.

U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper said on Thursday that China was the top suspect in the massive hacking of a U.S. government agency that compromised the personnel records of millions of Americans. The comments from Clapper, the director of National Intelligence (DNI), were first reported in The Wall Street Journal and marked the first time the Obama administration has publicly accused Beijing of the hacking attacks on the Office of Personnel Management. “You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did,” given the difficulty of the intrusion, the Journal quoted Clapper as saying at a Washington intelligence conference.

China-linked hackers appear to have gained access to sensitive background information submitted by U.S. intelligence and military personnel for security clearances that could potentially expose them to blackmail, the Associated Press reported on Friday. In a report citing several U.S. officials, the news agency said data on nearly all of the millions of U.S. security-clearance holders, including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and military special operations personnel, were potentially exposed in the attack on the Office of Personnel Management. It said more than 2.9 million people had been investigated for a security clearance as of October 2014.

By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A massive breach of U.S. federal computer networks disclosed this week is the latest in a flood of attacks by suspected Chinese hackers aimed at grabbing personal data, industrial secrets and weapons plans from government and private computers. The Obama administration on Thursday disclosed the breach of computer systems at the Office of Personnel Management and said the records of up to 4 million current and former federal employees may have been compromised. U.S. officials have said on condition of anonymity they believe the hackers are based in China, but Washington has not publicly blamed Beijing at a time when tensions are high over Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.