The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that could potentially provide payments to 21.5 million federal employees as a result of a data breach, The Washington Post reports. The breach occurred at the Office of Personnel Management and affected federal employees, as well as anyone who has undergone a background check since 2000. The breach was first revealed in June 2015. The court found the “OPM had failed to protect the data despite ‘repeated and forceful warnings’ the databases were vulnerable and a prime target for hackers,” according to the report. The DOJ claims the ruling did not take into consideration the cyberattack was a result of espionage and that union allegations only identified episodes not related to those attacks. (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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