Last year, President Obama’s email accounts were hacked, as was an unclassified computer system. Now, investigators say that this hack was more severe than first announced.
The Russian hackers also got deep into the State Department’s unclassified computer system. That’s how they got many email archives from people in and out of the White House. Thankfully, no classified information has been compromised. But some of the information they got was sensitive: conversations with ambassadors, potential legislation, policy debates. They got all they needed to learn a lot about the Federal government. What makes this situation even scarier is the culprits seem to be either in the Russian government or hired by the Russian government. Neither the number of these hacks, nor the number of the emails compromised, are known. Investigators call the cyber attack among the most sophisticated they’ve ever seen. This hacking causing debate about President Obama and his aides’ cyber security, despite the President himself taking more precautions, especially emailing outside the White House computer system. But hardly a day goes by when the White House isn’t cyber attacked. Granted most of the attacks are minor, but they still keep coming.
China has also been known to commit hacks on the White House. But what concerns me about the Russian government possibly being behind this is the strained US/Russian relations over the last several years. Obama and Putin have rarely agreed on anything, from the Ukrainian conflict to the handling of Edward Snowden. Some say the relations between these two nations today are just as bad as the Cold War era. Earlier this year, there was a Moscow parade in which a phony missile was paraded with the President’s name on it! Some may say, “You’re overacting; that was probably a joke.” I sure wasn’t laughing. This is why something needs to be done about international hacking. What if Russia knew our secrets? What could that lead to?