Hackers with suspected ties to the Russian government recently broke into the White House’s unclassified computer network, the Washington Post reported Tuesday night.
Anonymous White House sources told the Post of the breach, but said no classified systems had been broken into to their knowledge, and that the network had not been harmed aside from temporary disruption of service.
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The FBI, Secret Service, and National Security Agency are now investigating the hacking.
The Post reports:
White House officials said that such an intrusion was not unexpected. “On a regular basis, there are bad actors out there who are attempting to achieve intrusions into our system,” said a second White House official. “This is a constant battle for the government and our sensitive government computer systems, so it’s always a concern for us that individuals are trying to compromise systems and get access to our networks.”
Another White House source confirmed to Politico that the network had experienced “suspicious activity”, but did not go into details.
According to Politico, a security firm revealed Tuesday that Russian-backed hackers had targeted systems belonging to NATO, Eastern European governments, and some U.S. defense contractors.
The Huffington Post also reported that a severe cyberattack in the White House network left the system “on the fritz for nearly two weeks, if not longer.”
