The Professional Services Council is expressing cautious optimism after a federal agency said it would treat contracted employees no differently than federal employees when protecting their information in the wake of a massive government data breach.

Last year, hackers were able to access government databases holding personnel and security-clearance files with information on more than 22 million people, the Washington Post reported. The data contained information about current and former employees as well as their family, friends and other contacts listed for security clearances. http://wapo.st/1J8Bgce

PSC represents companies that provide professional and technical services for government. In a statement, CEO Stan Soloway said he was pleased the U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced that employees working under contract would receive the same protections and benefits as federal workers.

"The administration is taking the right steps to protect all affected parties," he said. "They're doing now what we urged them and our member companies to do before this announcement, which is to offer a full array of identity theft monitoring tools to give those at risk peace of mind in this disturbing and difficult time."

Still, Soloway added that given the volume of the breach, "our optimism is cautious."

"Cyber attacks are a reality of the tech-based ecosystem in which we live," he said. "So we need to understand, to the maximum extent possible, how these breaches occurred and what, if anything, could have been done to prevent them. We must then use that information to improve our ability to thwart future attacks and protect our nation's workers."

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