Newsweek is reporting that both the Obama and McCain campaigns were hacked by what is presumed to be foreign powers looking for insight into their policies and perhaps future negotiating positions. And they succeeded, too:
… both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: “You have a problem way bigger than what you understand,” an agent told Obama’s team. “You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system.” The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: “You have a real problem … and you have to deal with it.” The Feds told Obama’s aides in late August that the McCain campaign’s computer system had been similarly compromised. …
Officials at the FBI and the White House told the Obama campaign that they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps’ policy positions—information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration. The Feds assured the Obama team that it had not been hacked by its political opponents. …
When the White House Chief of Staff personally contacts a rival campaign like that, you have to think it was one of the biggest security threats — infosecurity or otherwise — of the whole campaign.
(But not the biggest, as the same article makes clear later on.)
