Speaking
to reporters on Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi compared
the hack to the infamous break-in of DNC offices at the Watergate
complex that was tied back to President Richard Nixon and the White
House.
"Let
me just say this in terms of the presidential campaign: This is an
electronic Watergate," Pelosi said. "This is a break in."
Pelosi was responding to a
report
late Wednesday by The New York Times that the scope of the hack of the
DNC was broader than had been known. Citing sources familiar with the
investigation, the Times reported that hackers compromised the private
email accounts of over 100 party officials and groups, including
officials in the campaign of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic
Governors Association -- though a Democratic source said that the DGA
inclusion was incorrect.
The
cyberattacks did include a breach of private email accounts of a number
of Democratic party officials, some with direct ties to the Clinton
campaign, a US official familiar with the investigation confirmed to
CNN. The official said investigators believe they now have a sense of
how wide the attack reached.
The
Clinton campaign has not been told by the FBI that their data was
affected, according to an aide. The campaign has met with the FBI about
the hack, though, the aide said, and the FBI told them phishing attempts
had been directed at the campaign. The campaign said it had been aware
of those attempts.
Also on
Thursday, sources confirmed the Senate and House intelligence committees
had been briefed on the matter. Neither revealed details of the
contents of the meeting.
According
to a Democratic source familiar with the hack, the DNC's analytics
platform was compromised and data with the Clinton campaign along with
it, but data from the DGA was not affected. The DGA recently began using
the platform that tracks field operations, while the Clinton campaign
has used it throughout the primary process, the source said.
The
hack was originally discovered as being two separate breaches of the
DNC, both by hacking groups identified by cybersecurity experts as
working for the Russian military and intelligence complex. One hack was
said to have lasted a year and targeted internal communications, the
other was for a few months and targeted opposition research on Donald
Trump.
Federal investigators had tried to warn the DNC months before, sources
told
CNN, but by the time the suspected Russian hackers were kicked out of
the systems damage had been done: Nearly 20,000 emails between a handful
of DNC officials were dumped on the web by Wikileaks as the Democratic
National Convention was kicking off. The emails showing opposition to
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the primary led to the resignation of
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Scultz on the eve of the convention and
departure of more party officials later.
While
the US has not publicly named Russia as the culprit, the White House
has acknowledged that is the belief of experts who investigated the
cyberattack. Pelosi said Thursday she knows "for sure it is the
Russians," though she didn't know if the attack affected the DGA.
It was previously
reported
that a staffer researching Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manfort's ties
to Russia and the Ukraine was notified by Yahoo that her personal email
account had been targeted by nation-state hackers.
"I
think that we have to recognize what is happening here," Pelosi said
Thursday. "The Russians broke in. Who did they give the information to? I
don't know. Who dumped it? I don't know. But I do know that this is a
Watergate-like electronic break in. And anyone who would exploit for the
purpose of embarrassment or something like that is an accomplice to
that."
Experts believe Russia is
behind the release of information from the hack online in an effort to
influence the presidential election.
House
Intelligence ranking member Adam Schiff on Thursday said his committee
had been briefed on "reported hacking into different Democratic campaign
organizations," but could not go further on who was behind it.
He renewed a call on the White House to make its evidence on attributing the hack public.
"If
this indeed turns out to be a cyberattack and leak conducted by a
foreign actor to influence our elections, that would be a grave matter
that should come with serious consequences," Schiff said. "That foreign
actors may be trying to influence our election -- let alone a powerful
adversary -- should concern all Americans of any party."
The
DNC will begin notifying victims whose information was compromised in
the breach and leak next week, according to a memo from DNC interim
chairwoman Donna Brazile that was obtained by CNN.
She
also announced the creation of a cybersecurity advisory board to the
DNC that will include former DHS official Rand Beers, former White House
CTO Aneesh Chopra, former deputy US CTO Nicole Wong and attorney and
former prosecutor Michael Sussman.
CNN's Deirdre Walsh, Shimon Prokupecz, Jeff Zeleny, Manu Raju and Dan Merica contributed to this report
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