Data Breach at the Office of Personnel Management: China, Again… Really?

The media has picked up on the Washington Post story that the Chinese government is behind the intrusion at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). While I’m not usually in the position of defending the Chinese, I’m skeptical that China is behind this incident. Here’s why:

Of course, claiming to know something you don’t in fact know and sharing that with a reporter isn’t a crime. It’s usually pretty easy for a reporter to find someone willing to give a quote to make a story. That’s what happened a year ago when news outlets reported that the NSA had been exploiting the Heartbleed vulnerability for two years, leading the NSA to tweet out a firm denial. In this case, I doubt anyone in the federal government is going to rush to defend the Chinese government, which is no doubt guilty of a thousand other crimes in cyberspace.