The White House on Monday confirmed that suspicious activity had been discovered on the White House server but did not address reports that President Obama’s emails had been accessed by hackers.
The Obama administration says the intrusion was limited to the unclassified section, but it declined to say whether Russian hackers were the perpetrators or whether President Obama’s emails were compromised.
“We have talked for a number of months now dating back to the fall about some suspicious activity that occurred on the White House servers,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday.
“The White House has taken important steps to eliminate that activity but it didn’t result in any compromises on the classified network,” he continued. “But we have not discussed the activity of that concern and we have not ascribed any attribution to that.”
Pressed for details, Earnest declined to elaborate on whether Russian hackers were responsible for the breaches and to what extent, if any, Obama’s emails were compromised.
The New York Times over the weekend reported that Obama’s email correspondence was breached by Russian hackers last year, along with other aspects of the White House’s unclassified computer system.
According to the report, the hackers were able to probe deep into the State Department’s unclassified system but were unable to penetrate deeply enough to get to the high-security servers that control the email traffic to the president’s Blackberry, which he carries constantly.
They did, however, reportedly obtain access to the email archives of people inside the White House with whom Obama communicated regularly, including emails the president sent and received.
Officials who confirmed the breach said the unclassified system contains highly sensitive material including schedules, email exchanges with ambassadors and diplomats and pending personnel moves and legislation, as well as debates over policy.
