In the wake of a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of federal employees, the Office of Personnel Management set up a hotline for those affected.
Frustrated feds originally had a hard time getting through, and were frustrated by the lack of a live operator who would be able to answer their questions.
"Right now, federal employees are rightfully frustrated with the response offered following this cybersecurity breach," said National Federation of Federal Employees president William Dougan. "Now, they cannot even get through to a live human to answer their questions."
But OPM now says that federal employees who call will have the option of talking to a live person after listening to an automated message.
The breach may have exposed the Social Security Numbers, date and place of birth, and current and former addresses of about 4 million current and former employees. Family members were not affected, according to sources familiar with the investigation into the breach.
Federal employees within the United States can call:
844-777-2743 or 844-222-2743, while feds stationed internationally can call 512-327-0700 or 512-327-0705.
See also: OPM hackers tried to breach other fed networks
See also: Massive OPM data breach went undetected for months
The breach – which occurred in December – also went undetected until April, when OPM upgraded its cybersecurity defenses and detected the incursion.
Federal employees are being given pin numbers to help access the new hotline, as well as to secure 18 months of identity theft protection and $1 million in fraud insurance. Federal employees should expect an email with their pin number, and can use that to access the services and hotline run by identify theft protection company CSID.
Dougan said there needs to be far more transparency about the attack and more support for federal employees who have been impacted by theft of their information.
"We want to start seeing real answers to the legitimate and numerous concerns of exposed federal employees. While we understand there is immense complexity with reviewing a cyberattack, the response to this point has been inadequate," Dougan said.
Jessica Klement, the legislative director at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees association, said OPM has said they are aware of the issue.
"We hope OPM will take action to correct this as soon as possible," Klement said.
