A 2015 Chinese-backed cyberattack on the Office of Personnel Management that exposed millions of personal records was “materially different” than the Russian-backed cyberattacks on Democrats during the election cycle, which is why the White House cracked down harder on the latter breach, press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday.

“What we’ve seen is that these are two cyber incidents that are malicious in nature but materially different,” Earnest said, defending the administration’s decision to issue sanctions in response to the Russian hack but not the Chinese hack.