The alleged penetration by Chinese hackers breached the files of the Office of Personnel Management, in which a vast amount of information about federal employees was accessed. According to the WSJ, investigators believe the hack compromised the records of approximately 4 million individuals. Indicatively, according to the OPM, there are about 4.2 million total personnel, so the hack affected some 95% of all Federal workers.

OPM Director Katherine Archuleta told the WSJ that: “we take very seriously our responsibility to secure the information stored in our systems, and in coordination with our agency partners, our experienced team is constantly identifying opportunities to further protect the data with which we are entrusted.”

From the WSJ:

An FBI spokesman said the agency is working with other parts of the government to investigate. “We take all potential threats to public and private sector systems seriously, and will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace,” he said.

The Office of Personnel Management, in a statement, said it detected the breach in April 2015 and is working with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

The Department of Homeland Security said it “concluded at the beginning of May” that the information had been stolen.

The OPM said it could discover that even more records were stolen. It couldn’t be learned how many of those individuals are government officials and how many might be contractors.

China has yet to respond officially, but as a reminder the last time the Pentagon accused China of hacking US defense programs, the communist nation was less than thrilled:

The U.S. claims contain "errors in judgment," Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told reporters at a monthly news conference.

"First, they underestimate the American Pentagon's ability to protect its safety, and second, they underestimate the intelligence of the Chinese people," Geng said. "China is entirely capable of producing the weaponry needed for national defense," he added, pointing to recent domestic technological breakthroughs such as the country's first aircraft carrier, new generation fighter jets, large transport planes and the Beidou satellite system.

China has consistently denied claims its military is engaged in hacking, including those in a report by U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant that traced the hacking back to a People's Liberation Army unit based in Shanghai.

It was unclear how the FBI determined that Chinese hackers were behind the attack: supposedly computer experts in China were able to penetrate the massive US government firewalls, foregoing the guaranteed fame and riches from BTFD in Chinese stocks.

In any event, the release of this data just days after the NSA's massive surveillance powers were curbed is hardly a coincidence, although it remains to be seen if this latest penetration of government workers will generate any sympathy points with the massive spy agency, best known for cracking down not on foreign hackers but on domestic electronic communication.

The revelation, however, is sure to inflame already tense relations between China and the US, which has reached a fever point in recent weeks over the escalation of Chinese encroachment into territories claimed by US allies in the South China Sea.

Quote:
Miguel and Joyce,
I so agree, why pussyfood around, just do it and get it over with. Or maybe they didn't have anything worth saying!

BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State militants have reduced the amount of water flowing to government-held areas in Iraq's western Anbar province, officials said Thursday, a move that highlights the use of water as a weapon of war and puts more pressure on Iraqi forces struggling to claw back ground held by the extremists in the Sunni heartland.

The development is not the first time that water has been used as a weapon in Mideast conflicts and in Iraq in particular. Earlier this year, the Islamic State group reduced the flow through a lock outside the militant-held town of Fallujah, also in Anbar province. But the extremists soon reopened it after criticism from residents.

Last summer, IS militants took control of the Mosul Dam — the largest in Iraq — and threatened to flood Baghdad and other major cities, but Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, later recaptured the facility.

The battle for the dam followed the Islamic State's blitz across much of western and northern Iraq earlier last year, an advance that captured key Anbar cities and also Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city that lies to the north of Baghdad. The Islamic State group also gained large swaths of land in neighboring Syria and proclaimed a self-styled caliphate on the territory it controls, imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

Last month, the IS captured Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, marking its most significant victory since a U.S.-led coalition began an air campaign against the extremists last August.

On Wednesday, IS militants closed the locks on a militant-held dam on the Euphrates River near Ramadi, reducing the flow downstream and threatening irrigation systems and water treatment plants in nearby areas controlled by troops and tribes opposed to the extremist group.

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This photo taken Wednesday, June 3, 2015, shows a destroyed bridge on the Euphrates river in norther …

Anbar councilman, Taha Abdul-Ghani said the move will not only make the lives of people living in the affected areas more difficult but it could also pose a threat to the security forces fighting to recapture Ramadi. If water levels drop significantly, he said, the extremists could cross the Euphrates River on foot.

"The militants might take advantage of that and attack troops deployed along the river" and the nearby Habaniya military base, Abdul-Ghani told The Associated Press.

The base has been used as a staging ground for Iraqi troops and allied Shiite militias in the fight against the militants in Ramadi and surrounding areas.

Thousands of people in government-held towns of Khalidiya and Habaniya are already suffering from shortages of drinking water because purification plants along the Euphrates have all but shut down because of already low water levels on account of the summer weather. The residents of the towns get only two hours a day of water through their pipes, he said.

"With the summer heat and lack of water, the lives of these people are in danger and some are thinking of leaving their homes," added Abdul-Ghani, and urged the government to use the air force to bomb some of the gates of al-Warar dam and release the water.

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In this image taken Thursday, May 28, 2015, Iraq's Badr Brigades Shiite militia detain four men …

He said there was no impact on Shiite areas in central and southern Iraq, saying water is being diverted to those areas from the Tigris River.

Abu Ahmed, a farmer with a vegetable farm near Khalidiya, said he could lose all his crops because of lack of irrigation water. Now, the water is lower than level of his water pumping machines.

"I used to irrigate my crops every three day. If the situation continues like this, my vegetables will die," said Abu Ahmed, using his nickname because of fears for his own life.

The United Nations said Wednesday it was looking into reports that IS had reduced the flow of water through the al-Warar dam.

"The use of water as a tool of war is to be condemned in no uncertain terms," the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters. "These kinds of reports are disturbing, to say the least."

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In this photo taken Wednesday, June 3, 2015, people gather near a destroyed bridge on the Euphrates …

He said the U.N. and humanitarian partners will try to "fill in the gaps" to meet water needs for the affected population.

On Thursday, U.N. officials meeting in Brussels to launch an Iraqi aide operation urgently called for $497 million in donations to provide shelter, food, water and other life-saving services for the next six months to Iraqis displaced or affected by the fighting between government forces and the Islamic State group.

The needs of Iraqis affected by the fighting are huge and growing, the officials said, with more than 8 million people requiring immediate support, and potentially 10 million by the end of 2015.

Lise Grande, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said the aid operation, which she called one of the most complex and volatile in the world, was hanging by a thread.

"Humanitarian partners have been doing everything they can to help. But more than 50 per cent of the operation will be shut down or cut back if money is not received immediately," Grande told members of the European Parliament, according to a U.N. news release. The consequences of such a reduction in aid, Grande said, would be "catastrophic."

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Map locates Ramadi dam in Iraq’s Anbar province.; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm x 76 mm;

"While we search for solutions to end the violence, we must do everything in our power to help," said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kyung-Wha Kang, also in Brussels. "The people of Iraq need our help, now."

Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had pressed his case at a Paris conference, calling for more support from the 25 countries in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the militant group, asking for more armament and ammunition.

"We're relying on ourselves, but fighting is very hard this way," al-Abadi said before the conference Tuesday.

The coalition has mustered a mix of airstrikes, intelligence sharing and assistance for Iraqi ground operations against the extremists. Al-Abadi said more was needed, with Iraq reeling after troops pulled out of Ramadi without a fight and abandoned U.S.-supplied tanks and weapons.

___

Associated Press Writers Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.

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At Least 73 Killed in Ghana Gas Station Blast

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — The death toll from a huge gas station explosion and flooding in Ghana's capital has more than doubled to 150 people, the president said Thursday night.

Dozens of people had sought shelter at the gas station and in nearby shops in central Accra to escape the torrential rains at the time of Wednesday night's blast. Flooding swept fuel being stored at the station into a nearby fire, triggering the explosion that also set ablaze neighboring buildings, officials said.

The West African nation will observe three days of mourning with flags flying at half-staff, and the government will allocate about $12 million for relief operations and to repair damaged infrastructure, President John Dramani Mahama told journalists before heading into an emergency meeting.

Before Mahama's announcement, the death toll stood at 73. The president didn't give a breakdown, but the new figure appears to include people killed in the explosion, others who drowned at the blast site trying to escape the flames and still more who drowned elsewhere in the city.

TV footage earlier Thursday showed corpses being piled into the back of a pickup truck and other charred bodies trapped amid the debris. Floodwaters around the site hampered rescue and recovery efforts.

Officials at the nearby 37 Military Hospital said its morgue had reached capacity.

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A fire services officer walks at the wreckage of a gas station that exploded overnight killing aroun …

Mahama visited the blast site during the day, calling the death toll "catastrophic" and offering condolences to families of the victims.

"Steps will be taken to ensure that disastrous floods and their attendant deaths do not occur again," he said.

Michael Plange, who lives a few blocks away, said many people had taken shelter under a shed at the station from the rain and were hit by the explosion.

The flooding "caused the diesel and petrol to flow away from the gas station and a fire from a nearby house led to the explosion," said Billy Anaglate, spokesman for Ghana's national fire service.

The deaths are likely to intensify criticism of the government's failure to improve the country's infrastructure. Though the downpours this week have been especially bad, heavy rains in June are not unusual — yet drainage systems in Accra remain inadequate.

The area where the blast occurred is a heavily trafficked section of central Accra with several banks and other offices in addition to residences. Multiple bus terminals connect the area to the rest of the city.

Throughout Accra, drivers caught in the flooding abandoned their cars on the road. The Education Ministry instructed all children who weren't already at school Thursday morning to stay home.

The city is also grappling with an energy crisis resulting in blackouts lasting for as long as 48 hours in recent years, sparking large-scale demonstrations that have drawn everyone from blue-collar workers to local movie stars.