The hackers had access to the program for five days, though there was no evidence that any computer systems were compromised.
Advertisement
The national security division of the Department of Justice is looking into whether cyber attacks on Democratic political organisations threatened U.S. security, according to U.S. media.
Discovery of the breach came Thursday, the evening that Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention in Philadelphia.
“A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace”, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in an official statement.
Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, said security experts believe that the DNC hack was perpetrated by hackers working for the Russian government.
A House Democratic aide said late Thursday that the FBI is investigating the hack. The fallout from the leak forced the ouster of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
A person familiar with the Clinton campaign program described it as essentially a dynamic voter database – with voter participation, voter contact information and voter files that all campaign organizations use. The computer networks of both the DNC and DCCC have been hacked; investigators say Russian Federation is the likely culprit.
“We have more material related to the Hillary Clinton campaign”, he told CNN on Friday.
Today, the Demoncratic Congressional Campaign Committee – which handles fund-raising for House Democrats – also confirmed that its servers had been compromised.
“We have taken and are continuing to take steps to enhance the security of our network”, committee spokeswoman Meredith Kelly said.
Clinton’s campaign is just the latest victim in a string of high-profile security failures – and the second breach to be revealed on Friday by beleaguered Democratic officials.
The Russian government has denied involvement and denounced the “poisonous anti-Russian” rhetoric coming out of Washington.
The committee raises money and helps the party’s candidates for the U.S. House.
Not only did the hack into DNC apparently allow the cyber operatives to steal opposition research on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but many suspect it led to the theft of internal messages that show efforts by DNC officials to undermine Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders during the primary season. CrowdStrike also investigated the earlier breach at the DNC.
Advertisement
But the campaign refused to cooperate with the investigation – holding back data the FBI had requested to look into the matter, Yahoo reported.
