TSP explains delay in reporting data breach

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has explained that it waited more than six weeks to inform plan participants of a data breach because it needed to confirm and validate the information it had received from a contractor, Government Executive reported June 6.

Serco Inc. told the Board about the breach on April 10. On May 20, the board received the validation of the breach. TSP participants then were notified about it May 23 after letters were mailed, according to the report. The board is offering a year of free credit monitoring to the victims, according to a different GovExec report.

The actual data breach took place almost a year ago, when Serco's computers were hacked July 2011. More than 123,000 participants' information was compromised, according to reports.