The Office of Personnel Management is being called to the carpet by lawmakers over a massive cyber breach that may have exposed the personal and financial information of millions of federal employees.

As many as 4 million current and former federal employees may have had their personally identifiable information compromised in a breach of IT systems at the Office of Personnel Management.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.D., the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the breach at OPM demonstrates that cybersecurity must be a top priority.

He said every day cyber attacks are getting more technically advanced and that the government cannot continue to look the other way.

" Our response to these attacks can no longer simply be notifying people after their personal information has been stolen; we must start to prevent these breaches in the first place," Burr said.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, faulted OPM for its inability to protect the personal information of federal employees.

"Today's reported breach is part of a troubling pattern by this agency in failing to secure the personal data of federal employees – the second major breach in a year," Warner said. "We cannot afford to keep dragging our feet in addressing the escalating threats posed by hackers out to steal individuals' personal information."

See also: OPM hack could affect 4 million people

Warner has also included language in the bipartisan Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act that would require the intelligence community to produce a comprehensive accounting of cyber threats and cyber crime, as well as new technologies that could help with detecting and reporting breaches.

Warner is also preparing to introduce data breach legislation that would create a comprehensive, nationwide and uniform data breach standard requiring timely consumer notification for breaches of financial data and other sensitive information.

OPM has said it will notify approximately 4 million individuals whose information may have been stolen, according to the announcement. Because the incident is still under investigation, more individuals whose information is at risk may yet be identified.

OPM will also offer credit report access and credit monitoring to the potentially affected people.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said it was disturbing that hackers from China may have sensitive information about current and former federal employees.

"It is even more troubling that this is only the latest in a series of cyberattacks on the Office of Personnel Management," Johnson said.

Despite OPM statements that it has undertaken an aggressive effort to update its security posture "Plainly, it must do a better job, especially given the sensitive nature of the information it holds," Johnson said.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., House democratic Whip, said he was deeply concerned about the OPM data breach and that federal employee information must be better protected.

"We must do everything we can to defend against cyber threats both in government and in the private sector," Hoyer said.

J. David Cox, the President of the American Federation of Government Employees, said that the union was working closely with the administration to determine the extent of the breach and ways to remediate it.

"AFGE will demand accountability and will take every necessary step to see that the interests and security of the nearly 700,000 people we represent are addressed," Cox said.

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