US stock market daily report (June 15, 2015, Monday)

The recent cyber attack on the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) could prove to be a treasure-trove for foreign spies. Agencies that use OPM services include the U.S. Department of State (DoS), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and National Security Agency (NSA). Hackers were able to penetrate OPM database which contained intimate and potential damaging facts about millions of government and private employees.

Current and former U.S. government officials are now under pressure over concerns that their secrets in the OPM database about drugs, money and sex could now be in the hands of a foreign government. Personal information now in possession of the hackers includes: arrests, financial troubles, health issues, infidelities, psychiatric diagnoses and substance abuse for both current and former U.S. government officials.

Retired General Michael Hayden, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and NSA director said, "The potential loss here is truly staggering and, by the way, these records are a legitimate foreign intelligence target. This isn't shame on China. This is shame on us."

According to U.S. officials, compromised data from the hacking included detailed personal information on the SF 86 "Questionnaire for National Security Positions". The SF 86 form is 127-pages long and is extraordinarily comprehensive and intrusive. Some of the questions on the SF 86 include: addresses where applicants have lived, foreign citizens they have contacted, illegal drug use, locations for any travel abroad, names and personal details of relatives and, except in limited circumstances - mental health counseling.

A former senior U.S. diplomat pointed out the ability for someone to use such data to impersonate an American official online, obtain passwords and hit bank accounts and, said, "It's kind of scary that somebody could know that much about us." Intelligence veterans said the breach could prove disastrous since China could use it to find relatives of U.S. officials abroad, evidence of love affairs or reported drug use which could be used to blackmail or influence U.S. officials. Even worse could include mass unmasking of covert operatives in the field.

Contributed by Millennium Traders