This year, we have seen a number of high-profile cyber attacks. These range from Anonymous taking on CIA’s website to the data hacked from Stratfor’s servers and leaked to Wikileaks. But apparently, that is not the end of it yet. While Anonymous remains mostly a hacktivist group which often responds to specific issues, there are other players in the arena who may be hunting after state secrets.
So was manifest in a recent cyber attack launched against the White House. An attempt was made to infiltrate into White House’s computers and access highly sensitive data. But the government officials claims that this attempt was successfully thwarted.
According to a White House spokesperson, “This was a spear phishing attack against an unclassified network. These types of attacks are not infrequent and we have mitigation measures in place.”
Apparently, someone who was a part of the White House staff opened up a suspicious email by mistake which triggered the alarm. However, before any sensitive information could be compromised, those tasked with the digital security of the facility were able to contain the risk and eliminate it.
In hushed tones, a number of media outlets have pointed fingers to Chinese hackers for having perpetuated the attacks, although White House has refused to name anyone yet.
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