Katherine Archuleta, director of the Office of Personnel Management(Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Katherine Archuleta, the embattled director of the Office of Personnel Management, resigned Friday in the wake of two massive hack attacks against her agency that compromised the data of more than 21 million Americans.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Archuleta resigned "of her own volition," but also realized that the technology challenges now facing OPM "require a manager with a special set of skills."
President Obama believes "it's quite clear that new leadership" with unique skills is "badly needed" at OPM, Earnest said.
Earnest said Archuleta did some good things at OPM, including installing new security systems that enabled officials to detect one of two major hacks against the agency.
The resignation comes just one day after Archuleta announced that a hack of background investigation files stored by the agency had resulted in the theft of highly sensitive data for about 21.5 million Americans who applied for federal jobs that require a background clearance. That data included health records, fingerprints, and Social Security numbers for both job applicants and their spouses and friends.
It became untenable for Archuleta to stay after that revelation, said two administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
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OPM says second hack affected more than 21M Americans
Last month, OPM revealed that a separate but related cyber attack had compromised the personnel records of about 4.2 million current and former federal employees.
The hacks are the largest known cyber attacks in U.S. history.
A growing number of members of Congress had been calling for Archuleta to resign, in part because they believe she did not heed warnings from her own inspector general and others about the vulnerability of OPM's systems.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz welcomed Archuleta's resignation. He was one of the first members of Congress to ask her to leave.
"This is the absolute right call," said Chaffetz, R-Utah. "OPM needs a competent, technically savvy leader to manage the biggest cybersecurity crisis in this nation's history. The IG has been warning about security lapses at OPM for almost a decade. This should have been addressed much, much sooner but I appreciate the president doing what's best now."
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Archuleta, who has been at OPM for about 18 months, blamed the data breaches in part on the agency's aging systems, some of which are 30 years old.
Beginning Saturday, Beth Cobert will become OPM's acting director. She is currently the office's chief performance officer and deputy director for management.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the new management at OPM will face a tough challenge.
"The new leadership now has the hard task of not only fixing the failures that allowed this to happen, but also earning back the trust of federal government employees and the American public," McCaul said. "This massive data theft of very sensitive information underscores again the need for cybersecurity laws to be strengthened. I hope the Senate will act quickly on cybersecurity legislation that passed the House with a strong bipartisan vote two months ago."
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House passes bipartisan cybersecurity information-sharing bill
The Senate has yet to take up House-passed legislation that would encourage private companies to share more cyber threat information with the government to help thwart hackers. The bill would give companies limited immunity from lawsuits by shareholders and protect them anti-trust actions by the government for sharing information with one another and with federal officials.
Although administration officials have not publicly blamed anyone for the OPM cyber attacks, some have privately pointed to China as the likely source of the hacks. China has denied any involvement.
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