House Republican campaign arm hacked during 2018 midterms

Emails from top officials at the National Republican Congressional Committee were hacked during the 2018 midterm elections, Republican sources tell CNN, exposing the GOP’s House campaign arm to an intrusion by an “unknown entity.”

The hack, which was first reported by Politico, was discovered by a vendor in April after emails from four senior committee aides had been surveilled for months, a Republican official with knowledge of the intrusion tells CNN.

A source familiar with the investigation into the hack told CNN that the attackers would have been able to see all the emails being sent and received by the NRCC aides whose accounts were breached.

The revelation of the hack comes weeks after House Republicans lost their majority and saw Democrats pick up close to 40 seats in the House. In a sign of how serious the committee believed the hack to be, they brought on the law firm Covington and Burling to handle the issue, as well as Mercury Public Affairs to deal with the public relations around the intrusion.

After the NRCC was alerted to the hack, top officials then informed CrowdStrike, a Republican official said, the cybersecurity firm that helped Democrats expel the Russians from their computer systems in 2016, and later shared information with the FBI as it investigated the election-season hacks.

Ian Prior, a spokesman for the committee, said Tuesday that they were hacked “by an unknown entity.”

“The NRCC can confirm that it was the victim of a cyber intrusion by an unknown entity,” said Prior. “The cybersecurity of the Committee’s data is paramount, and upon learning of the intrusion, the NRCC immediately launched an internal investigation and notified the FBI, which is now investigating the matter.”
“To protect the integrity of that investigation, the NRCC will offer no further comment on the incident,” he added.

Ian Prior, a spokesman for the committee, said Tuesday that they were hacked “by an unknown entity.”
“The NRCC can confirm that it was the victim of a cyber intrusion by an unknown entity,” said Prior. “The cybersecurity of the Committee’s data is paramount, and upon learning of the intrusion, the NRCC immediately launched an internal investigation and notified the FBI, which is now investigating the matter.”
“To protect the integrity of that investigation, the NRCC will offer no further comment on the incident,” he added.

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