White House officials Tuesday would not confirm a CNN report saying Russian hackers were behind a high-profile cyberattack on the State Department and the White House.
The CNN report, citing U.S. officials briefed on an ongoing investigation into last year’s attack, says Russian hackers not only have gained access to State Department servers but also were able to find their way into White House systems and, in the process, learn non-public details of President Obama’s personal schedule and other sensitive information.
The White House confirmed the breach last year but has maintained the hackers did not gain access to any classified material.
“This report is not referring to a new incident — it is speculating on the attribution of the activity of concern on the unclassified EOP network that the White House disclosed last year,” said Mark Stroh, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council.
“Any such activity is something we take very seriously. In this case, as we made clear at the time, we took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity. As has been our position, we are not going to comment on the referenced article’s attribution to specific actors,” he said.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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