On Tuesday, Obama administration officials said that unclassified sections of the White House computer network have been hit by sustained cyberattacks in recent weeks, temporarily disrupting internet service and prompting a scramble by government cybersecurity experts to fend off the attack. The hackers, suspected to be working for the Russian government, didn't damage the computer systems, The Washington Post reports, and there's no evidence yet that the network was breached.
"The temporary outages and loss of connectivity that users have been experiencing is solely the result of measures we have taken to defend our networks," the White House said in an internal email. The FBI, NSA, and Secret Service are all participating in the investigation of the cyberattack. Suspected Russian government hackers are also believed to have targeted NATO, Ukraine's government, and U.S. defense contractors in recent months. Most cyberattacks on the White House computer networks don't go anywhere.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What could bring the US Steel-Nippon Steel merger back to life?Today's Big Question President Trump opposed the deal. But he could be flexible.
-
'Orange juice also is facing a grander existential problem'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
5 of the scariest spiders in existenceThe Explainer These creepy crawlers can be deadly
-
Federal judges block Trump citizenship orderSpeed Read A second judge has blocked the president's order to end citizenship for children born on American soil to parents without legal status
-
DOGE official at Treasury resigns after racist postsSpeed Read Marko Elez's ability to access the Treasury's central government payment system has been rescinded
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
-
Trump orders ban on trans female athletesspeed read The order directs the federal government to withhold funding from schools that do not comply
-
Musk's DOGE gains access to Medicare, eyes FAAspeed read The billionaire said his Department of Government Efficiency will make 'rapid safety upgrades' to our air traffic control systems
-
Trump: US 'will take over' Gaza, without PalestiniansSpeed Read President Trump has suggested the US take ownership of Gaza, permanently displacing more than two million Palestinian residents
-
Democrats try to stop Trump's USAID closureSpeed Read Trump and Elon Musk are attempting to dismantle the US Agency for International Development, a move congressional Democrats say is illegal
-
Trump tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China rattle marketsSpeed read The tariffs on America's top three trading partners are expected to raise the prices of everything from gas and cars to tomatoes and tequila
