A video message went out to all federal employees on Friday urging them to change every password, check their credit cards for fraud, and in general beware of foreign spies attempting exploitation. What happened?

A cyberattack on Friday stole millions of government files on federal personnel, including a number of low-level employees. Officials worry that this information could be used to sneak into more secure computers- the kind where vital state secrets lie.

“Some of you may think that you are not of interest because you don’t have access to classified information,” said Dan Payne, a senior counterintelligence official for the Director of National Intelligence.. “You are mistaken.”

The stolen date is believed to to contain information on people employed by the federal government as far back as 1985. ‘Einstein’, the nickname for the government’s $376 million a year computer-defense system, proved utterly ineffective against the attack.

The spies stole information that included the names of employee family members and background clearance information.

It is believed that the attack originated in China. The US has not yet directly accused the Chinese government of espionage. China menacingly warns that any accusation would be “irresponsible”.

“We know that the attack occurred from somewhere in China, but we don’t know whether it was an individual or a group or a nation-state attack,” said Representative Jim Langevin (D – Rhode Island), a vocal supporter of cybersecurity.

Along with data on personnel, important non-classified information was taken. This includes internal debates on foreign policy and economic strategy.

“The scale of it is just staggering,” said Representative Adam Schiff (D – California) who is on the House Intelligence Committee.

Officials worry that the data could be used to create fake messages personalized in such a way as to trick workers into divulging information or worse- installing spyware that could steal even more information.

“The kind of data that may have been compromised in this incident could include name, Social Security Number, date and place of birth, job assignments, training files, performance ratings and current and former addresses,” said Samuel Schumach, a spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management.

The attack was targeted at the personnel agency since it was housed in the Department of Interior as opposed to the heavily guarded Pentagon or National Security Agency.