By Sheetal Sukhija, South America Times
06 Dec 2018, 03:51 GMT+10
WASHINGTON, U.S. - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an investigation into a cyberattack suffered by members of the U.S. Republican Party.
According to a report in Politico, an official of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spotted the hacking of email accounts of some key Republican campaign officials during the month of April, and alerted the committee.
The report noted that the NRCC subsequently discovered that accounts of four senior aides had been targeted and that the accounts were compromised for several months.
However, the U.S. Republican Party officials pointed out that none of the emails had been made public.
The email hacking, which took place ahead of the November mid-term elections, was subsequently reported to the FBI, which began an investigation.
The NRCC, which co-ordinates election campaigns for Republican candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, confirmed the cyber attack in a statement.
The NRCC spokesman Ian Prior said in the statement, "The NRCC can confirm that it was the victim of a cyber intrusion by an unknown entity. The cybersecurity of the Committee's data is paramount, and upon learning of the intrusion, the NRCC immediately launched an internal investigation and notified the FBI, which is now investigating the matter."
According to senior party officials quoted in the report, the NRCC kept the details of the hacking under wrap, hiding it from the party's leadership, as well as its house members.
The officials said that NRCC feared making the details public as it could make it harder to find the attackers.
Further, sources quoted in the report said that hackers had stolen passwords to access some NRCC email accounts and that the hacking was relatively unsophisticated.
The NRCC has refused to release any further details of the hack, with the spokesperson saying, "To protect the integrity of that investigation, the NRCC will offer no further comment on the incident."
However, the report claimed that the NRCC quickly fixed the problem by changing the passwords on accounts at its web-based email provider.
The committee was further said to have taken steps to protect the organization from similar attacks.
Get a daily dose of South America Times news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to South America Times.
More InformationWASHINGTON DC - U.S. President Donald Trump has called on the Venezuelan military to abandon their president, and to throw ...
GENEVA, Switzerland - An international humanitarian and medical aid organisation operating in Syria has denounced the shelling of civilian areas ...
CAIRO, Egypt - Just days after foreign ministers from Arab nations sat down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in ...
LONDON, UK - Seven Labour Party MPs have resigned from the party to form their own group with shared policies, ...
Diehard jihadists have blocked roads out of the last scrap of their Islamic State group "caliphate" in Syria, US-backed forces ...
Sexual violence in South Sudan has been rampant, prompting a call from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, for urgent ...
WASHINGTON DC - U.S. President Donald Trump has called on the Venezuelan military to abandon their president, and to throw ...
Tokyo [Japan], Feb 19 (ANI): Japan has joined a growing list of countries who have extended support to Venezuela's National ...
London [United Kingdom], Feb 19 ( Only two matches were able to make it to the tennis court on Monday ...
London [United Kingdom], Feb 19 (ANI): England spinner Adil Rashid, who had flew back home to attend the birth of ...
New Delhi [India], Feb 18 (ANI): In a special declaration, India and Argentina on Monday expressed their resolve to fight ...
New Delhi [India], Feb 18 (ANI): India and Argentina exchanged 10 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and agreements during the Argentine ...
DUBLIN, Ireland - Following its successful acquisition of Hollywood-based Blindlight, Irish video-gaming company Keywords Studios has now announced its latest accomplishment. Keywords r ...
Read More