Russian Hackers Have Been Reading Obama’s Emails
Some of President Obama’s email correspondences were swept-up by Russian hackers last year, in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system. This breach was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged, according to senior American officials briefing on the investigation.
The hackers, who also got deeply into the State Department’s unclassified system, do not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers that control the message traffic from Mr. Obama’s BlackBerry, which he or an aide carries constantly.
But they obtained access to the email archives of people inside the White House, and perhaps some outsiders with whom Mr. Obama regularly communicated. From those accounts, they reached emails that the president had sent and received, according to officials briefed on the investigation.
White House officials said that no classified networks had been compromised, and that the hackers had collected no classified information. Many senior officials have two computers in their offices, one operating on a highly secure classified network and another connected to the outside world for unclassified communications.
The president’s closely guarded BlackBerry email account was not hacked, the Times said, but communications with other users were swept up.
Quoting “senior American officials briefed on the investigation”, the Times said the hackers penetrated sensitive parts of the White House computer system, as well as the State Department. The hackers are presumed to be linked to the Russian government, if not necessarily working for it.
“It’s the Russian angle to this that’s particularly worrisome,” the Times quoted a senior official as saying.
In February, Sony was the subject of an extensive and damaging hack, which Obama, in extensive and strongly worded warnings about cybersecurity, blamed on the government of North Korea.
NY Times: http://nyti.ms/1ApdHZo
Ein News: http://bit.ly/1QTefB0
