MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) — A computer network used by the White House has in the past month been subject to suspicious cyber activity, a White House official has told the Washington Post.
"In the course of assessing recent threats we identified activity of concern on the unclassified EOP network. Any such activity is something that we take very seriously. In this case we took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity," the source said.
The network in question is used by employees of the Executive Office of the President. The official continued that "our actions are ongoing and some of our actions have resulted in temporary outages and loss of connectivity for some EOP users."
The Washington Post in its report of the incident alleged that “hackers thought to be working for the Russian government,” are behind the breach, but sources at the White House declined to comment on which organization might have been responsible.
An official told the paper, “Certainly a variety of actors find our networks to be attractive targets and seek access to sensitive information,” adding that security services are “still assessing the activity of concern.”
The activity is said to have been detected two or three weeks ago, and in response staff were unable to use intranet or VPN, as the breach was being tackled. Emails systems were not stopped, despite some minor delays.
ABC News carries a statement from one official, who said “computers and systems have not been damaged,” and it appears that the classified network has not been affected. The channel reports that the FBI, Secret Service and National Security Agency are investigating.
The revelations came on the same day as the US Department of Homeland Security released a statement announcing a move to increase the level of security at US government buildings in Washington D.C. and other cities, citing “the continued public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks on the homeland and elsewhere.”
The statement did not detail the precise locations and actions of the increased security, adding that any measures to be taken were “law-enforcement sensitive” and will vary according to location and evaluation of danger.
