U.S. officials have blamed Russian hackers for hacking an “unclassified computer” at White House and keeping an eye on Obama’s communications and daily schedule.
Hackers used a phishing-style attack to take over a State Department computer, which allowed them to gain access to the system inside White House.
Despite having access to the system, the Russian hackers were not able to access any classified document (Report: CNN).
However, sometimes even an unclassified computer has classified information or in simple words any stolen information is precious and can be a building block to massive attacks/surveillance.
In a talk with CNN, Mr. Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser said the staff using high-level government systems are always encouraged to protect even the non-classified data due to a rise in the cyber attacks on the government servers (during recent years).
“We’re constantly updating our security measures on our unclassified system, but we’re frankly told to act as if we need not put information that’s sensitive on that system,” he said. “In other words, if you’re going to do something classified, you have to do it on one email system, one phone system. Frankly, you have to act as if information could be compromised if it’s not on the classified system.”
When asked if he can confirm the breach, Rhodes did not comment if Russian hackers were involved or not. The Russian Embassy and the U.S. State Department hasn’t responded to the issue either.
This as we know, is not the first time when the United States officially or unofficially has blamed a foreign country for hacking its computers. In October last year, White House blamed Russia for hacking its computers to steal NATO and Ukraine.
Source: CNN | Follow @HackRead
