Hackers who breached White House network had access to sensitive information

According to a recent report by CNN, Russian-government hackers are responsible for the security breach against the White House's computer systems late last year, as U.S. officials then suspected. However, it turns out that they have underestimated the seriousness of the intrusion. The hackers not only penetrated unclassified systems, but also gained access to sensitive information.

Mark Stroh, spokesman for the National Security Council, said that the impact of the attack is too exaggerated.

"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,'' he said. "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."

Hackers first accessed State Department networks and used that to gain access to the White House systems. There, they had access to information including real-time non-public details of the president's schedule. While such information is not classified, it is still highly sensitive and important.

The hack is considered to be among the most sophisticated attacks ever launched against U.S. government systems. As usual, the hackers tried to hide their tracks by spreading the attack through computers around the world. Despite this, investigators found markers that they believe point to hackers working for the Russian government.

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