Vox Sentences: Chinese hackers reportedly have every federal worker's Social Security Number

4 million Social Security numbers

Office of Personnel Management headquarters. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

• The president of the union that represents federal workers has claimed, based on private briefings with the government, that the hackers who breached the Office of Personnel Management last week got Social Security numbers for every federal employee.

  [AP / Ken Dilanian]

• The letter states: "we believe that … the hackers are now in possession of personnel data for every federal employee, every federal retiree, and up to one million former federal employees … We believe that Social Security numbers were not encrypted, a cybersecurity failure that is absolutely indefensible and outrageous."

  [National Journal / Dustin Volz]

• Military, intelligence, and congressional staff wouldn't be affected, but just about everyone else would be.

  [AP / Ken Dilanian]

• You can read the union's full letter here.

  [National Journal / Scribd]

• An ABC report cites government sources saying the hack went much deeper than is publicly acknowledged and began with an initial breach more than a year ago.

  [ABC News / Mike Levine]

• The attacks are believed to have come from China, apparently aimed at identifying Chinese intelligence operatives in the US under surveillance by US law enforcement.

  [Vox / Timothy B. lee]

• A New York Times report suggested the hackers "obtained the names of Chinese relatives, friends and frequent associates of American diplomats and other government officials, information that Beijing could use for blackmail or retaliation."

  [NYT / David Sanger and Julie Hirschfeld Davis]

I’m Rupert Murdoch, billionaire tyrant

From left: Rupert Murdoch, Sarah Murdoch (Lachlan's wife), James Murdoch, and Lachlan Murdoch. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

• Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as CEO of 21st Century Fox and handing the position over to his son James.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• James's older brother Lachlan is also moving from Australia to serve as co-executive chairman, alongside his father.

  [NYT / Emily Steel and Ravi Somaiya]

• 21st Century Fox is one half of Murdoch's empire; it separated from the other half — News Corps, which controls Murdoch's newspapers and publishing houses — two years ago and includes Murdoch's film/TV businesses.

  [Washington Post / Paul Farhi]

• Before the split, Murdoch's business was embroiled in a major 2011 scandal when it emerged that his News of the World newspaper hacked the cellphones of story subjects.

  [Bloomberg / Anousha Sakoui]

• James, who controlled the Murdochs' British newspaper businesses at the time, was found by a parliamentary report to have "showed willful ignorance of the extent of phone-hacking."

  [Washington Post / Paul Farhi]

• He also, fun fact, cofounded Rawkus Records, which released several classic late-'90s underground hip-hop albums, like Mos Def and Talib Kweli's Black Star and Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus.

  [NYT / Emily Steel and Ravi Somaiya]

• For more background on Murdoch and the history of his media empire, Tim Lee has a great explainer.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

Delete your account

Costolo with San Franciso mayor Ed Lee. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

• Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has resigned; co-founder Jack Dorsey will be interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

  [The Verge / Casey Newton]

• The company has been taking considerable criticism, and enduring stock price drops, for losing money ($578 million last year) and for slow user growth.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• One revealing stat: Twitter has about one-fourth the users of Facebook, but about a tenth the revenue.

• One of its major investors, venture capitalist Chris Sacca, has argued that Twitter's decision to show tweets in reverse chronological order, rather than highlighting updates it thinks users will like most (as Facebook does), has made it intimidating and too hard for most people to use.

  [Chris Sacca]

• Analyst Ben Thompson has argued that the company's decision to block most third-party Twitter apps was its most crucial mistake and reversing course there could help it attract new users by offering them different apps with different experiences.

  [Stratechery / Ben Thompson]

• Matt Yglesias argues the company should just accept it's not going to grow to be as big as Facebook and adjust accordingly (this strategy, however, would probably disappoint investors who've bet on the company growing a lot).

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• One final option: it could sell to Google, which could do a lot with the vast amount of user data Twitter has at its disposal.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

Misc.

• A Cleveland judge found probable cause for a prosecution against the cop who last November shot to death Tamir Rice, a black 12-year-old who was playing with a toy gun.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• In the annals of congressional misbehavior, Mark Kirk calling Lindsey Graham a "bro with no ho" probably doesn't top Preston Brooks beating Charles Sumner with a cane until he inflicted significant brain damage, but it's up there.

  [Politico / Nick Gass]

• There's a lake in Australia that's naturally bright, bright pink.

  [Now I Know / Dan Lewis]

• In New Hampshire, 53 percent of children live with their married, biological parents. In Mississippi, 32 percent do.

  [NYT / David Leonhardt]

• This is a great remembrance of the Virtual Boy, an unfair slight against the great game that was "Mario's Tennis" aside.

  [AV Club / Anthony John Agnello]

Verbatim

• "Of course, DPR was right that Green had been flipped—by the very same man he’d just hired as an assassin."

  [Wired / Joshuah Bearman]

• "It was an amazing combination of 'We are ripping you off like no one has ever ripped anyone off as a per-unit basis,' but 'We are also building a time bomb that’s going to flatten us forever.'"

  [Sasha Frere-Jones to AV Club / Annie Zaleski]

• "Even though tuition is almost completely free here, Norwegians whose parents did not go to college are just as unlikely to go themselves as are Americans whose parents did not pursue higher education."

  [The Atlantic / Jon Marcus]

• "All too often in our society we confuse financial luck with virtue. As a result, we’re always seeking fully blameless victims."

  [Slate / Helaine Olen]

• "What’s wrong with being 'funny like a clown?' Clowns are funny. I love clowns."

  [Fusion / Molly Fitzpatrick]

Song of the day

• Apropos of James Murdoch's promotion, here's Black Star with "Definition."

  [YouTube]

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via