Pelosi said she would change her phone number and advised other Democrats to do the same.
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The hacker claiming responsibility for the breach – working under the pseudonym Guccifer 2.0, which USA intelligence officials believe is an alias for a Russian intelligence hacker – appeared eager to taunt Democrats in releasing the latest files. The information was posted on the Guccifer website and among the victims listed were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer. And I would say it’s beyond a reasonable doubt …
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
The documents appear to have been obtained through a hack of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) – the Democrats’ organization to elect its members to the House. “If Russia made the material available”, they wrote to the White House, “then the episode would represent an unprecedented attempt to meddle in American domestic politics – one that would demand a response by the United States”. The documents include the email and physical addresses of almost 200 Democratic members of Congress. The committee raises money for Democrats running for the House of Representatives. Foreign spies could use that information to try to intercept sensitive communications.
The alleged leak comes after the campaign committee told ABC News in late July it had been “the target of a cybersecurity incident”, just weeks after the Democratic National Committee also revealed it was hacked.
But U.S. officials suspect the operation and others directed at the DNC and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign were more likely an attempt to pursue email chains into classified networks or in search of national security policy information than to influence the November 8 U.S. election.
The hacker who claimed the responsibility for the breach of the personal data of almost 200 lawmakers is seemingly linked to the Russian intelligence services.
Guccifer 2.0 claims this information was gathered by breaching the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Keep following”, read a post sent from a Twitter account that’s since been suspended.
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Mr. Hoyer said Congress, the White House and US intelligence agencies should consider using “offensive measures” in response to the breach.
