According to the latest news from the Office of Personnel Management, the number of people whose fingerprint images were stolen in the data breach is now estimated as 5.6 million, not 1.1 million.

The Office of Personnel Management became the victim of (supposedly) a Chinese espionage operation, which affected about 21.5 million current and former federal employees or job applicants. According to the security experts, the hack could allow Chinese intelligence to recruit informants inside the American government or help identify US spies abroad.

However, the Obama administration did not publicly blame China or take any public action in retaliation. In the meantime, intelligence officials believe that the data is a fair intelligence target, and the US itself would pursue it.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, the ability to misuse fingerprint data is limited, but the situation could change in the future as technology evolves. The largest hack ever exposed the state of federal digital security and even cost the OPM director her job. It is believed that the full extent of damage will play out over years and may never be visible to the public.

The security specialists explain that the stolen records included detailed biographical forms of federal employees, where those would have provided identifying information about friends and family both in the country and abroad. Of course, such data would give the hackers vast new opportunities to target people for recruitment. Besides, it also could allow to pinpoint US intelligence officers abroad, though the CIA case officers are not included in the database unless they held a previous government job.