Dive Brief:

• Data stolen in the breach of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management earlier this year has not shown up for sale on the black market so far, a researcher with U.S. cybersecurity firm Fireeye Inc. said.
• The researcher says the fact that the data has not shown up for sale is further evidence that a foreign government may be responsible for the attack.
• The breach has been linked to hackers in China.

Dive Insight:

Richard Bejtlich, chief security strategist at Fireeye, said individual hackers tend to sell stolen data quickly.

"Everything points to this being a nation-state attack,” Bejtlich said. “It's not the same as when someone steals credit cards from a major retailer and they're for sale in the black market within a day, and they're advertised as being fresh, and here are the limits."

Bejtlich said in 2008 China hacked into Taiwan's health care system, seizing health care records.

"Taiwan is the proving ground for everything else that happens in the world that comes from China. So we've seen this already," he said.