A new report says Russian hackers obtained many of the president’s emails when the unclassified email system in the White House was hacked last year, Fox News reports. The report suggests the problem is worse than previously believed.
“Citing officials briefed on the investigation, [t]he New York Times reported Saturday that while the hackers did not appear to have breached more carefully guarded servers that contain Obama’s BlackBerry messages, they did manage to obtain access to email archives of people with whom Obama communicated,” Fox News reported.
The Times was not told how many emails might have been obtained, but it was revealed the unclassified emails do often include important information such as schedules, emails exchanged with ambassadors and diplomats, and policy discussions with advisers. The White House denied that President Obama’s own personal email account was hacked.
“No classified networks were compromised and hackers obtained no classified information, White House officials said. Many administration officials have two computers in their offices, one of which operates on a secure network and another unit connected to the outside world for unclassified information,” Fox News reported. “That Obama’s emails were obtained by Russian hackers in particular – presumed to be linked to the Russian government – caused the intrusion to be seen as so serious that officials met on a nearly daily basis for several weeks afterwards,” the Times reported.
The White House has been hit with Russian and Chinese cyber attacks on a daily basis, the New York Post reports.
“That Obama’s emails were obtained by Russian hackers in particular – presumed to be linked to the Russian government – caused the intrusion to be seen as so serious that officials met on a nearly daily basis for several weeks afterwards, The Times reported,” the New York Post reported.
“It’s the Russian angle to this that’s particularly worrisome,” a senior U.S. official told the Times .
Russian hackers had been reading President Obama’s unclassified emails, the Inquisitr reported yesterday. The report said Russian hackers obtained access to emails on the White House unclassified server.
“According to the report, the cyber break-in, which happened last year, is now thought to be far more intrusive than what it was originally thought to be. The report adds that the Russian hackers also managed to hack into the State Department’s unclassified networks.,” the Inquisitr reported. “They were, however, not able to get through the highly secure security systems in place for the BlackBerry that President Obama carries with him all the time. What the Russian hackers did manage to access were email archives of the communication that President Obama had with people inside the White House.”
[Photo of President Obama from Fox News]
