Despite attempts to downplay that recent cybersecurity breach at the White House, we know that the Russian hackers responsible for the breach have managed to gain access to a disturbing amount of information. According to officials close to the investigation into the breach, the hackers managed to obtain numerous emails sent to and from President Obama, although no classified information has been breached as far as we know.
Some of President Obama’s email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged, according to senior American officials briefed on the investigation. The hackers, who also got deeply into the State Department’s unclassified system, do not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers that control the message traffic from Mr. Obama’s BlackBerry, which he or an aide carries constantly. But they obtained access to the email archives of people inside the White House, and perhaps some outside, with whom Mr. Obama regularly communicated. From those accounts, they reached emails that the president had sent and received, according to officials briefed on the investigation.