White House threatens sanctions over recent cyberattack

White House press secretary Josh Earnest says the United State will impose economic sanctions on those who hacked the data of four million of current and former government employees.

“In April, the president, using his executive authority, signed an executive order giving the Treasury Department additional authority to use economic sanctions to punish or hold accountable those who are either responsible for a cyber intrusion or are benefiting from one,” he said.

American officials said Thursday hackers had broken into the computer system of the Office of Personnel Management.

Hackers gained access to the data of some 2.7 million current government workers and about 2 million retired workers.

Unnamed American officials claimed China was behind the massive hack.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, however, announced that the accusations were irresponsible.

“Not to carry out a deep investigation and keep using words such as 'possible' is irresponsible and unscientific,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

The Obama administration and the US Congress are blaming each other for the latest cyberattack.

Earnest on Friday blamed Congress for not taking action to protect the country from such attacks.

“We need the United States Congress to come out of the Dark Ages and come into the 21st century to make sure we have the kinds of defenses that are necessary to protect a modern computer system,” Earnest said.

In response, US House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman Corey Fritz blasted the White House, saying that the House of Representatives passed two cybersecurity bills in April to address public-private data sharing with broad bipartisan support.

"Where is the leadership? The federal government has just been hit by one of the largest thefts of sensitive data in history, and this White House is trying blame anyone but itself. It’s absolutely disgusting," he said.

On Friday, Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called on Congress to act because public and private data are both vulnerable to breaches.

“We cannot sit idly-by, accepting a situation in which persistent cyberattacks and data insecurity are the new norm,” he said. “Our top priority must be finding ways to deter our enemies from attacking in the first place and ending the ability to infiltrate, steal and disrupt with impunity."

AGB/AGB

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