Obama administration officials Wednesday would not confirm reports that Russian hackers were behind recent breaches of the White House computer system, and the situation has riled Republicans on Capitol Hill who say they weren’t told of the cyberattack.
The breaches reportedly were discovered several weeks ago, though they were revealed publicly only over the past few days.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that an investigation is underway but would not address the notion of Russian involvement, which was first reported Tuesday by The Washington Post, citing anonymous officials.
“The White House has detected some activity of concern on the White House network. There is an ongoing effort to evaluate that activity and to mitigate the risk associated with that activity. In the context of those efforts, the administration is continuing to learn all we can about where those activities originated and what sort of methods are associated with those activities,” Mr. Earnest told reporters.
“It would be unwise, I think for obvious reasons, for me to discuss from here what we have learned so far,” he said.
But lawmakers believe they should be kept in the loop and say the White House has refused to share information about the attacks, including the possibility that Russian hackers were involved.
“I’m disappointed the White House decided not to notify Congress of the breach, even as its officials debated with my staff the need for agencies to tell Congress when they’ve been hacked,” Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, said in a statement Wednesday.
“I have pressed the administration to share details about what was happened and how the attack succeeded. I have yet to receive satisfactory answers. Let us seize this opportunity to work together to protect against this very serious threat to our national security and economy,” he said.
The White House’s classified computer network was not breached, and Mr. Earnest said the hacking resulted only in some “inconveniences.”
Those inconveniences included delays last week in the delivery of “pool reports,” written by reporters traveling with the president and distributed to other news outlets via a White House-controlled email list.
What’s also unclear is exactly how the attack came to light. The administration reportedly was informed of the breach by an “ally,” though Mr. Earnest would not confirm that when pressed by reporters Wednesday.
Analysts said the breach itself, while potentially serious, is less troublesome than the fact that the administration simply may not have known it was under a cyberattack.
“The most troubling point for us thus far is that the White House security team was notified about the breach by an ally. While such alliances are vital and show great information sharing, how is that an ally has a better understanding of the White House’s network security situation than the White House does?” said Ben FitzGerald, National Security Program director at the Center for a New American Security and Amy Chang, a research associate at the center.
“This intrusion is another example of how defending networks is much more difficult than attacking them. With the number of potential vulnerabilities,” analysts said.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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