Every single current and retired US federal employee may have had their personal information stolen in last week's hack attack, it has been claimed.
Social security numbers, military records, addresses, job and pay history, union status and life insurance details are among the data reportedly scooped up, going back to 1985.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said the data breach - which was disclosed last week - was more serious than originally thought.
The hackers targeted the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which deals with federal employee data.
The original estimate was just over two million victims, but if all current and retired staff are affected the tally could be closer to seven million.
AFGE president David Cox said that social security numbers were not encrypted, an omission he called a "cybersecurity failure that is absolutely indefensible and outrageous".
Mr Cox said the breach was an "abysmal failure" by the OPM.
He added that it was hard for his union's members to find out information about the attack, saying they didn’t have "access to a living, breathing human being knowledgeable enough to answer questions."
The OPM has said it will cover 18 months of credit monitoring for all affected current and former employees.
Some US officials believe the hackers are based in China.
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