This month, hackers have breached into the White House computer systems. According to anonymous officials, the Russian government is allegedly behind the intrusion.
A US official said Tuesday the White House's unclassified computer network was recently breached by unknown hackers and Russia was believed to be behind the suspicious cyber activity. According to New York Daily News, the invaders got into the office's unclassified network that contains top secret data.
The White House hacking, allegedly by the Russian government, resulted in temporary disruptions to some services while cyber-security teams worked to control the intrusion. The Washington Post reported US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the hackers did not damage any of the systems and there is no proof the classified network was hacked.
"In the course of assessing recent threats, we identified activity of concern on the unclassified Executive Office of the President network," one White House official stated. "We took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity. . . . Unfortunately, some of that resulted in the disruption of regular services to users. But people were on it and are dealing with it."
The National Security Agency, FBI and the Secret Service are all involved in the ongoing investigation. The White House officials are not giving further information on who was behind the hacking or how much information was taken.
"Certainly a variety of actors find our networks to be attractive targets and seek access to sensitive information," the White House official said. "We are still assessing the activity of concern."
An ally alerted the US officials about the breach. And in the course of addressing the intrusion, some White House users were temporarily disconnected from the network, as stated by Yahoo News.
The White House officials said in a statement that the President's Executive Office receives daily alerts about several possible cyber threats.
Security firms have recently reported they have identified cyber-espionage operations by hackers believed to be working with the Russian government. As said by the White House, the hacking targets have included the US Defense contractors, NATO and the Ukrainian government.
The nature of target in the White House hacking case is consistent with a state-sponsored campaign. Meanwhile, US officials considered Russia as being in the top rank of states with cyber-capabilities.
The White House hacking incident allegedly done by Russia was discovered two to three weeks ago. Some staffers were requested to change their passwords. Intranet or VPN access was shut off for a while; however the email system, apart from other some minor delays, was never down.
Officials said the White House hacking incident helped incite the effort to establish US Cyber Command, a military team committed to defending the nation's critical computer systems. It includes those in the private sector against foreign cyber-attack, as well as helping combatant commanders in operations against opponents.
By 2016, authorities said the US Cyber Command is expected to have some 6,000 personnel. And when directed by the president or defense secretary, the command can carry out offensive measures.
The recent White House hacking incident is not the first breach that the Russian intelligence service was suspected to be involved. In 2008, it was discovered that Russia was behind the breach in the US military's classified networks.
