Major union sues federal personnel office over hack, says agency ignored ample warnings

The largest federal employee union has filed a class action lawsuit against the federal personnel office and its leaders.

The suit argues that negligence by federal officials contributed to the cybertheft of private information on up to 18 million current and former employees or contractors.

The suit by the American Federation of Government Employees names the Office of Personnel Management, its director, Katherine Archuleta, and its chief information officer, Donna Seymour.

The lawsuit alleges that although OPM had been warned for years that its data security was suspect, it failed to take appropriate steps to safeguard employee information. The suit says the credit monitoring services OPM has provided to affected employees have been inadequate.

OPM did not have an immediate comment.