(Newswire.net — June 15, 2016) — The chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), spoke about the breach to the DNC computer network, saying that they were treating this hack as a serious incident. She added that the DNC moved quickly and took serious actions to secure their network and kick out the intruders as quickly as possible.
According to the Washington Post, the hackers broke into the Democratic National Committee’s computer system, and accessed research on Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.
According to the DNC and CrowdStrike, the cyber firm that helped clean up the breach, the hackers were able to read emails and chat conversations, the Washington Post reported.
DNC leadership acted quickly to contain the damage after the intrusion was discovered, saying said that no financial, donor or personal information seems to have been accessed or taken.
Nobody is sure how the hackers got into the computer network. CrowdStrike suspects that the hackers may have targeted DNC employees with “spearphishing” emails. These are emails that appear legitimate, from a trusted individual or business, but are not. Instead they contain links or attachments that deploy malicious software when clicked on, allowing the hackers to gain access to the computer. As of yet, experts have no evidence that this was in fact how they got into the system.
Russia has denied involvement in the incident related to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
Spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, told Reuters that possibility that that the Russian government is involved has been completely ruled out.
According to the Washington Post, the intrusion into the DNC network was one of several targeting American political organizations. U.S. officials said that the networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some Republican political action committees.