Postal Service confirms security breach, Chinese government hackers reportedly suspected

Chinese government operatives reportedly are suspected of hacking the U.S. Postal Service, in a security breach that may have compromised personal information for more than 800,000 workers.

The breach was announced Monday, as President Obama arrived in Beijing.

The Postal Service confirmed the incident in a written statement, saying personal information that may have been obtained in the attack includes employees’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, emergency contacts and other information. 

Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in U.S.

WASHINGTON — In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations.

The number of requests, contained in a 2014 audit of the surveillance program by the Postal Service’s inspector general, shows that the surveillance program is more extensive than previously disclosed and that oversight protecting Americans from potential abuses is lax.

The audit, along with interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, offers one of the first detailed looks at the scope of the program, which has played an important role in the nation’s vast surveillance effort since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.