[SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE]
Stevie Nicks sang "Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies". Walter Scott wrote "What a tangled web we weave when once we practice to deceive".
Thanks to (allegedly) Chinese hackers all the dirty little secrets that are stored in government warehouses will now see the light of day.
The hacking of the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) could provide a treasure trove for foreign spies.
When a retired 51-year-old military man disclosed in a U.S. security clearance application that he had a 20-year affair with his former college roommate's wife, it was supposed to remain a secret between him and the government.
The disclosure last week that hackers had penetrated a database containing such intimate and possibly damaging facts about millions of government and private employees has shaken Washington. - Yahoo News
If you ever applied for a job with the government, applied for taxpayer funded assistance or needed a government loan, your secret information may no longer be secret.
The man had kept the affair secret from his wife for two decades before disclosing it on the government's innocuously named Standard Form 86 (SF 86), filled out by millions of Americans seeking security clearances.Now the government and the Chinese know.
Has he told his wife yet?
So just how much information is needed for Standard Form 86?
The SF 86 form, which is 127-pages long, is extraordinarily comprehensive and intrusive.
Among other things, applicants must list where they have lived; contacts with foreign citizens and travel abroad; the names and personal details of relatives; illegal drug use and mental health counseling except in limited circumstances.
This is not good.
FROM HGS: Pardon the piling on, but it ain't just OPM and the military (past, present, and possibly future) at risk:
"A government data warehouse stores personal information forever on millions of people who seek coverage under [The obamaTax], including those who open an account on HealthCare.gov but don't sign up for coverage." [emphasis added]
Get that? Even if you ultimately decided not to enroll, your personal medical, financial and credit information is potentially at risk. Now, the investment folks always warn that "past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results."
But that's the way the smart money bets.
FROM HGS: Pardon the piling on, but it ain't just OPM and the military (past, present, and possibly future) at risk:
"A government data warehouse stores personal information forever on millions of people who seek coverage under [The obamaTax], including those who open an account on HealthCare.gov but don't sign up for coverage." [emphasis added]
Get that? Even if you ultimately decided not to enroll, your personal medical, financial and credit information is potentially at risk. Now, the investment folks always warn that "past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results."
But that's the way the smart money bets.