The White House says it has taken steps to address "suspicious activity" detected on the unclassified Executive Office of the President computer network in recent weeks — a breach that The Washington Post says may be the work of hackers hired by the Kremlin.
According to the Post, the breach has resulted in "temporary disruptions to some services." The newspaper quotes unnamed White House officials as saying that it did not damage any systems and that there's no immediate evidence that a classified network was breached. The Post says the attack is consistent with a state-sponsored effort, and Russia is thought to be the most likely culprit.
The Post says:
"The breach was discovered two to three weeks ago, sources said. Some staffers were asked to change their passwords. Intranet or VPN access was shut off for awhile, but the email system, apart from some minor delays, was never down, sources said.
"The Russian intelligence service was believed to have been behind a breach of the U.S. military's classified networks, which was discovered in 2008. The operation to contain the intrusion and clean up the computers, called Buckshot Yankee, took months."
The Associated Press says the White House has declined to officially comment on the Post report that Russia may be behind the breach.
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