Katherine Archuleta, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), resigned Friday following a massive breach that leaked information of more than 21 million people.
The resignation is effective at the end of today, The Wall Street Journal reported. President Obama accepted her resignation this morning and Beth Cobert, the U.S. chief performance officer and deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, will step in as the agency's acting director.
The resignation comes after the OPM in June disclosed that hackers stole 4.2 million personnel records from the agency from the agency. OPM on Thursday said it actually affected more than 21 million Social Security numbers, and that the hackers made away with every background-investigation form completed by OPM since 2000.
"I conveyed to the president that I believe it is best for me to step aside and allow new leadership to step in, enabling the agency to move beyond the current challenges and allowing the employees at OPM to continue their important work," Archuleta said in a statement, according to the Journal.
Archuleta served as director of the OPM since Nov. 2013. Before that she worked in the Obama administration as Chief of Staff to former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
Security experts said the breach should be a wake-up call to the government and private organizations about the importance of cybersecurity.
The stolen data "can be used to not only access financial accounts and steal identities, but also identify and target government employees for other nation state attacks," Eric Chiu, president of cloud security firm HyTrust, said in a statement. "In the wake of major breaches at the IRS, Target, Home Depot and Anthem, organizations should place greater priority on the security of our critical systems and data. Otherwise, attackers will continue to have the upper hand and we'll see major breaches continue to cost consumers and businesses billions of dollars, as well as cost executives their jobs."