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A breach of federal government computers that dates back at least to April may have facilitated the theft of the personal data of up to 4 million current and former federal workers, reports said Thursday.

Reports said federal officials think hackers in China stole the data. The breach was discovered this April at the Office of Personnel Management, the reports said, with the Office of Homeland Security concluding in early May that records were stolen.

This breach is the latest in a series of hacks and breaches affecting federal systems by criminals here and abroad. Last week brought reports that tax return data for more than 100,000 households had been stolen from IRS's website. Any of those households may be served by credit unions, which now have even more reason to be on alert for signs of suspicious, fraudulent account activity affecting their members.

The numbers of persons whose data has been exposed through these incidents are significant, yet they pale by comparison with some merchant data breaches, such as those that occurred in 2013 at Target and last year at Home Depot.

NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger told Credit Union Times, "Cybersecurity is everyone's concern, and this is another example how disruptive and dangerous it is. Unfortunately, these attacks are quickly becoming the new normal, whether from financial criminals or state-sponsored." Berger testified before Congress this April on merchant data breaches.

Senate leadership has said it hopes to turn to the stalled cybersecurity bill this month. More background on such incidents and resources for dealing with them are available here.