Rubio: OPM head should be fired for data breach

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Thursday joined fellow Republican White House contender Jeb Bush in calling for Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Katherine Archuleta’s ouster, as the debate over what’s thought to be the largest government hack ever creeps into the presidential race.

{mosads}“The American people, starting with the people who have had their data breached, deserve more candor, transparency and urgency from the Obama Administration,” Rubio said. “People need to go, starting with the OPM director.”

Rubio’s comments came several hours after the OPM revealed that 22.1 million people — more than 5 times the initial estimate — had been exposed by two separate hacks at the agency.

He is the second GOP White House hopeful to be vocal about wanting Archuleta to go, following the former Florida governor, who started beating the drum for her firing two weeks ago.

Rubio described the OPM’s handling of the the incident as “utter incompetence.”

“OPM officials need to be held accountable and fired for what appears to be utter incompetence. While it is completely unacceptable that our federal databases containing such massive amounts of personal information on federal employees could be so vulnerable in the first place, it’s even more infuriating that this data was hacked seven months ago and the American people are only now being informed about it,” he said.

The breach is a national security risk, he said. It’s believed China is behind the hacks, conducted as part of a broader cyber espionage campaign.

“The U.S. needs an offensive cyber capability that can serve as a strong deterrent against enemy state actors and cyber criminals, like those involved in this effort out of China,” Rubio said.