AUGUSTA — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced Wednesday her personal information — from her Social Security number to her parent’s names to her childhood neighbors — has been compromised in a cybersecurity attack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

The worst part, said Collins, is that the breach dates back months and she just learned about it on Wednesday. That’s when Collins posted a letter she received from OPM on her Twitter account.

“You are receiving this notification because we have determined that the data compromised in this incident may have included your personal information, such as your name, Social Security number, date and place of birth and current or former address,” the letter read.

Collins told the BDN that the reason her information is on the OPM website is because of a job she held at the Small Business Association for about 18 months under President George H.W. Bush. She said she and certain other federal employees fill out a form that demands a very high level of personal detail, even the names of college roommates and childhood addresses. That information stays on record even after the employee moves on or retires.

“I just can’t stress enough the amount of personal information there is on these forms and on the database,” she said. “The other thing that is troubling me is that OPM was very slow to notify people of the breach. … I cannot imaging how easy it would be, having the information on this form, to steal someone’s identity.”

Collins said weaknesses in OPM’s computer and website system have been known since last year, when an Office of the Inspector General report recommended that the agency shut down some of its websites and computer equipment.

“It’s really irresponsible and dangerous that OPM knew of these vulnerabilities and did nothing significant to correct them and that they continue to operate websites that expose the personal data of federal employees,” said Collins.

OPM offered Collins and the other people affected by the breach free financial credit monitoring and identity theft insurance for a period of 18 months.

According to an article in The Daily Caller, the data breach affected some 4 million past and current federal workers, but Collins said she has heard classified information that the breach actually affected “many times that.”

Collins is one of very few members of Congress who was affected by the data breach because she is one of the few that was previously a federal employee. However, she said three members of her staff also have received letters from OPM. Collins said the Department of Homeland Security is intervening at OPM to install more sophisticated firewalls and eliminate vulnerabilities, but that a much bigger issue is at stake: the need for Congress to finally pass a cyber security bill.

“I wonder how many of these computer intrusions we have to endure before we finally take more action to protect vulnerable computer systems at both civilian agencies and in the federal government,” said Collins. “What I am most worried about is a nation state like China, Russia or Iran, or a terrorist group like al-Qaida intruding into critical industry controls or critical infrastructure like the electric grid or a nuclear power plant. … There are potential national security consequences that could cause widespread death and destruction and a serious blow to our economy.”

This is an issue that Collins has long been involved with. In 2011, she co-authored a cyber security bill with then-Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, which failed. Since then there have been data breaches at private and public agencies ranging from Target stores to the Internal Revenue Service.

“Nevertheless, there are still people who don’t change the default password when they buy a new package of software or use a 1-2-3-4-5-6 password,” said Collins. “Each of us has a responsibility to try to make sure that we have good cybersecurity habits.”