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The protesters were able to access computers left unattended after the evacuation of Congressional staff.
The storming of the US Congress building in Washington, among other things, can pose a threat to cybersecurity, experts say.
On Wednesday, January 6, supporters of Donald Trump broke into the Capitol building, where the US Congress is located, in order to disrupt the confirmation of Joe Biden as the 46th US president. At least 50 people were arrested after using Molotov cocktails, improvised explosives and weapons. As a result of the storming of the Capitol, at least five people were killed.
According to The Independent, the protesters gained access to at least one computer system in the office of Congressional Speaker Nancy Pelosi. There are serious concerns about the fact that the attackers were able to compromise the entire digital infrastructure of Congress.
As reported in a tweet (now deleted), The Blaze employee Elijah Schaffer (Elijah Schaffer), he managed to get into Pelosi's office along with other protesters who broke into the building. The image he posted shows a computer monitor with an email client open on the screen and emails dated 2019. Since Capitol employees left their computers, laptops and mobile devices unattended during the emergency evacuation, attackers could also gain access to them.
Leaving computers and other devices unprotected is fraught with the introduction of bookmarks and malware in them by foreign opponents or other intruders. It is quite possible that the organizers of the assault could have downloaded malware to computers via the Internet or using memory cards, according to Peter Yapp, former deputy director of the National Center for Cybersecurity in the UK (NCSC).
Nevertheless, according to Eric Geller, a specialist in cybersecurity issues at the Politico media organization, the threat to cybersecurity as a result of the storming of the Capitol is quite low. First, the Congressional computer systems are not integrated into one common network, Geller explained. Secondly, potentially compromised machines do not store classified information. In addition, there have been so many leaks in the Capitol that all valuable data has long been kept under lock and key. And one more thing – the protesters were in the Capitol for a short time, and they would not have had enough time to get full access to the systems.
However, according to Geller, the attackers still stole one computer from the office of Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley. The office declined to provide details due to the ongoing investigation.
"Could one of the terrorists have seen confidential but not classified emails somewhere? Yes. Could there be Russian spies in the terrorist gang? Yes. But there is no evidence of this. Employees of the Capitol's IT department will need to prioritize responses in accordance with risk modeling," Geller said.
The storming of the US Congress building in Washington, among other things, can pose a threat to cybersecurity, experts say.
On Wednesday, January 6, supporters of Donald Trump broke into the Capitol building, where the US Congress is located, in order to disrupt the confirmation of Joe Biden as the 46th US president. At least 50 people were arrested after using Molotov cocktails, improvised explosives and weapons. As a result of the storming of the Capitol, at least five people were killed.
According to The Independent, the protesters gained access to at least one computer system in the office of Congressional Speaker Nancy Pelosi. There are serious concerns about the fact that the attackers were able to compromise the entire digital infrastructure of Congress.
As reported in a tweet (now deleted), The Blaze employee Elijah Schaffer (Elijah Schaffer), he managed to get into Pelosi's office along with other protesters who broke into the building. The image he posted shows a computer monitor with an email client open on the screen and emails dated 2019. Since Capitol employees left their computers, laptops and mobile devices unattended during the emergency evacuation, attackers could also gain access to them.
Leaving computers and other devices unprotected is fraught with the introduction of bookmarks and malware in them by foreign opponents or other intruders. It is quite possible that the organizers of the assault could have downloaded malware to computers via the Internet or using memory cards, according to Peter Yapp, former deputy director of the National Center for Cybersecurity in the UK (NCSC).
Nevertheless, according to Eric Geller, a specialist in cybersecurity issues at the Politico media organization, the threat to cybersecurity as a result of the storming of the Capitol is quite low. First, the Congressional computer systems are not integrated into one common network, Geller explained. Secondly, potentially compromised machines do not store classified information. In addition, there have been so many leaks in the Capitol that all valuable data has long been kept under lock and key. And one more thing – the protesters were in the Capitol for a short time, and they would not have had enough time to get full access to the systems.
However, according to Geller, the attackers still stole one computer from the office of Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley. The office declined to provide details due to the ongoing investigation.
"Could one of the terrorists have seen confidential but not classified emails somewhere? Yes. Could there be Russian spies in the terrorist gang? Yes. But there is no evidence of this. Employees of the Capitol's IT department will need to prioritize responses in accordance with risk modeling," Geller said.