On Tuesday night the Washington Post reported that an unclassified White House computer network was compromised in the last few weeks by hackers who may have been working for the Russian government.
Sources said that there were network service disruptions while White House cybersecurity attempted to remove the intruders—staffers had to change passwords and couldn’t use White House VPNs (virtual private networks) for a while. Officials said that there wasn’t long-term damage or an indication that the hackers reached any classified data.
The FBI, Secret Service, and NSA are working jointly on an ongoing investigation about the breach, and White House officials won’t confirm who their suspects are. But sources at security firms have implicated Russian hackers in other similar attacks lately and told the Post that the White House hack seemed consistent.
A staffer who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity said:
On a regular basis, there are bad actors out there who are attempting to achieve intrusions into our system. 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.
The battle for a secure network, typewriter, whatever continues.
