The under-fire head of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Katherine Archuleta, has finally handed in her resignation after two monumental data breaches which have rocked Washington.
A blog post published on Saturday had the following:
“Yesterday I informed OPM employees that I am stepping down as the Director of this remarkable agency and the remarkable people who work for it. Yesterday morning, I offered, and the President accepted, my resignation. I conveyed to the President that I believe it is best for me to step aside and allow new leadership to step in, enabling the agency to move beyond the current challenges and allowing the employees at OPM to continue their important work.”
Archuleta had clung stubbornly to her job, even stating publicly the evening before her resignation that she would not be stepping down.
The former OPM chief has only been in the job around two years and has come under heavy criticism from lawmakers over her leadership.
Not only was she in charge when records on an unprecedented 22.1 million former and current government employees and their friends and family were seized by hackers, but it later emerged that the OPM had ignored warnings about poor IT security raised by the inspector general’s office.
“Last year they recommended it was so bad that you shut it down and you didn't and I want to know, why?” asked House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz in a June congressional hearing on the breaches.
The first breach of 4.2 million records was discovered back in April. But then, on further investigation, the OPM found that a much larger batch of information was stolen from the department’s background investigation databases.
The data contained highly sensitive information on employees applying for special security clearance for restricted military and other roles.
Experts have warned that this kind of data could be used by foreign powers to recruit spies or blackmail Federal employees – creating a potentially huge security risk at the center of government.
Archuleta will be replaced in the interim by former McKinsey director, Beth Cobert.