US Senate Staff Targeted By State-Backed Hackers, Senator Says (pbs.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PBS NewsHour: Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a Wednesday letter to Senate leaders that his office discovered that "at least one major technology company" has warned an unspecified number of senators and aides that their personal email accounts were "targeted by foreign government hackers." Similar methods were employed by Russian military agents who leaked the contents of private email inboxes to influence the 2016 elections. Wyden did not specify the timing of the notifications, but a Senate staffer said they occurred "in the last few weeks or months." But the senator said the Office of the Sergeant at Arms, which oversees Senate security, informed legislators and staffers that it has no authority to help secure personal, rather than official, accounts. "This must change," Wyden wrote in the letter. "The November election grows ever closer, Russia continues its attacks on our democracy, and the Senate simply does not have the luxury of further delays."

Comments

Lessons not learned?

[MiniMike]

If anybody who works for a high profile hacking target like a senator still uses their personal e-mail for work related business, they're a complete idiot.

Looking forward to the next round of leaks...

Re:Lessons not learned?

[Anubis IV]

Well, then, it strikes me that they have two options:

1) Have the integrity necessary to not engage in personal behavior that runs contrary to your public image. Good luck with that.

2) Use some balance of carrots and sticks to encourage services to better protect our data/not keep it in the first place, but also provide more teeth for going after the bad guys.

They can do both if they want, but they don’t get to institutionalize the routine violation of our right to privacy and then complain about the situation when theirs is violated.

Well...duh.

[argStyopa]

1) It's unsurprising that this was floated by a Democrat, whose party has been essentially asserting that the Russians stole the election by unspecified "hacking" (leaving furrows in the turf as the goalposts constantly shift on what THAT means).
2) Nevertheless ... the idea that Senate offices/staff may be the targets of nefarious hacking attempts (regardless of party affiliation) is really so obvious that it falls into the "don't run with scissors" category.

I know the men and women of our government are oblivious and at least 1.5 decades behind any technological curve, but do they really have to be told this?

Re:Well...duh.

[LazarusQLong]

Yes, they do. No, they aren't 1.5 decades behind, more like 4 decades behind. They are really only knowledgeable in how to lie and manipulate people, nothing else.

Still using private e-mail?

[guruevi]

Off course the master-at-arms isn't going to secure your private e-mail, you shouldn't be using it.

This is pretty blatant admission of law avoidance by D-Wyden. Where is the FBI on that investigation?

Re:Still using private e-mail?

[Anonymous Coward]

Off course the master-at-arms isn't going to secure your private e-mail, you shouldn't be using it.

This is pretty blatant admission of law avoidance by D-Wyden. Where is the FBI on that investigation?

WTF are you going on about. Of course they have personal email. There are things that are illegal for them to use a government account on, like campaigning.

Senator Wyden, your entitlement is showing.

[MachineShedFred]

Dear Senator Wyden,

None of the other 300+ million US Citizens have their personal email "secured" by law enforcement authorities either. Maybe you shouldn't be keeping secure info in your personal email either. That's what your official @senate.gov email is for, which IS secured by law enforcement.

If you would like your personal email to be secure, you should probably self-fund that, just like everyone else. Or, get used to the idea that email isn't secure, at all.

Warm regards,
Everyone else that isn't an entitled jackass Senator.

PS if this is an attempt to set the table for more excuses for electoral losses in November, it's not a good one. Complaining about "email hacking" when bad shit comes out makes you and your compatriots look like idiots because you were using insecure systems to hide shit from your bosses - the people. By far, the best, most effective way to not have disclosures of shady shit stolen from your email, is to not have shady shit in your email.

Hacking e-mail? Amateur!

[LynnwoodRooster]

REAL Senators know that you simply hire foreign spies to work for you for a few decades. E-mail hacks are for those shiftless layabouts in Oregon, in California we go straight to putting spies on the payroll!