A top Senate Democrat claims the personal email accounts of a number of senators and their aides have been targeted by foreign government hackers.
An unnamed technology company has warned select senators and their staff their accounts may have been breached, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in a letter Wednesday asking Senate leadership to support his push to grant Senate security officers greater power to help protect personal devices and accounts.
“Given the significance of this threat, I was alarmed to learn that [U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms] cybersecurity personnel apparently refused to help Senators and Senate staff after these attacks,” Wyden wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and leadership of the Senate Rules Committee.
“The SAA confirmed to my office that believes it may only use appropriated funds to protect official government devices and accounts,” said Wyden. “This approach must change to keep up with changing world realities.”
Pentagon officials and other intelligence community personnel have resources available to them to shield personal devices and accounts, Wyden said.
Wyden, aside for support of his proposed legislation, also called on Senate leadership to poll senators and their aides to understand how many have been contacted by tech companies regarding similar intrusions.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Sergeant at Arms did not provide the Associated Press, which first reported the story, with a comment.
Wyden’s letter did not offer details concerning the attacks, but a Senate staffer told the AP they happened “in the last few weeks or months.”
The Oregon Democrat’s letter does reference attacks by Fancy Bear, a Russian hacking group, which targeted senior congressional staff in 2015 and 2015.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are examples of lawmakers who have reported receiving phishing emails.
