Skip to main content

Russian hackers got a peek at some of Obama’s emails last year

barack and michelle obama to address crowd sxsw coding
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Even the president of the United States isn’t completely safe when it comes to online hacks. The New York Times reports that hackers believed to be working for the Russian authorities managed to harvest some of President Obama’s email messages during a cyberattack carried out last year.

Only unclassified material was accessed, and the officials speaking to the NYT say that the president’s BlackBerry remained securely protected at all times. What the hackers were able to see were unclassified emails sent to government workers in the State Department and elsewhere. While the cybercriminals didn’t get into Obama’s personal email account, they apparently did pick up some correspondence sent from it.

Recommended Videos

As we reported in October, a series of hacking attacks affected both the White House and the State Department. While the authorities were keen to play down the impact of the digital espionage, it seems that the damage could be more widespread than was originally thought. In February, the U.S. State Department said it has to block several thousand hacking attempts every day.

“This has been one of the most sophisticated actors we’ve seen,” said a senior White House official of the hackers involved in the incident. Staff at the White House are connected to both a secure internal network and an unclassified external network — for communicating with the outside world — and it’s the latter network that was exploited.

Schedules, communications with ambassadors and diplomats, pending personnel moves and legislation, and some policy debate could be among the information obtained by the hackers, according to the New York Times. Many of the president’s official classified briefings are given orally or on paper, however.

David Nield
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…
At basically $105, the Ryzen 5 7600X is the best gaming CPU to buy right now
The Ryzen 5 7600X sitting among thermal paste and RAM.

I don't usually get my hopes up for Black Friday CPU deals, but I found one that's just too good to pass up. Right now, you can get the Ryzen 5 7600X -- still one of the best processors for value-focused gaming -- for basically $105. No, that's not the actual price listed on Newegg where you'll find the deal, but there's a lot going on with this sale.

For starters, the CPU itself is marked down by 24%, bringing the $299 list price down to $225. Not a great deal for a last-gen chip. However, you can save an additional $30 by using the promo code BFEDY2A33, and more importantly, you'll get a free Kingston NV3 1TB hard drive with the order. That's a PCIe 4.0 SSD that normally costs $90.

Read more
This Asus laptop with Copilot+ is $350 off at Best Buy
Asus Vivobook S 15 CoPilot+ front view showing display and keyboard.

You can do quite a bit of gaming on the go these days, thanks to all the handheld consoles and gaming laptops that are on the market. Regarding the latter, we’re always on the lookout for top discounts on the gaming gear we all want to own, which leads us to this wonderful discovery:

For a limited time, when you purchase the Asus Vivobook S 15 with Copilot+ at Best Buy, you’ll pay $550. At full price, this model sells for $900. We tested this PC earlier this year, and our reviewer said the following: “The Asus Vivobook S15 is the best large-display Copilot+ laptop so far in an old-school form factor.”

Read more
This gorgeous Mac mini hub exacerbates the power button placement problem
M4 Mac mini with Satechi hub on a desk.

Satechi, known for its high-quality tech accessories, is updating its Mac mini hub for the new M4 model. Like previous hubs, it allows Mac mini owners to expand their storage and ports while preserving airflow, wireless signal, and performance. It looks awesome, but this time, the design highlights the problematic nature of the new Mac mini's placement of its power button.

With previous Mac mini models, the power button was at the back, making it easily accessible even when it was in a Satechi hub. The new button placement on the bottom of the PC, however, may prove even more annoying for anyone who wants to buy this accessory.

Read more