Yes. I am caught up in the Chinese hack that stole all the .gov background check information last year. Not only did my pertinent information get stolen, but also everyone who I used as character references. Trust is dead.
Oh wow, I've been a reference for a few friends. Looks like mine was breached too. Incidentally I got the "looks like a state actor is trying to access your gmail account" several years ago, and I think the only value I'd have is as a friend/reference of some people in fairly sensitive government positions.