The White House said Thursday that no U.S. government email accounts were accessed in a recent hack of Gmail accounts belonging to government officials, activists, and journalists.
It's unclear, however, if the personal email accounts of senior officials were involved.
"We have no reason to believe at this point that any official U.S. government email accounts were accessed," White House press secretary Jay Carney said during a press briefing.
The Presidential Records Act mandates that all official government work be conducted via work email accounts. But officials are allowed to have personal accounts through services like Gmail for non-government business.
"In terms of ... our work accounts, we have no evidence to suggest that any of those accounts were accessed or compromised," Carney said. "[But] I'm not aware of any law or rule that suggests that government workers cannot have separate private email accounts."
Earlier this week, Google discovered that a number of its Gmail account user names and passwords of personal accounts belonging to senior government officials, activists, and journalists, had been compromised. The hack appears to have originated from Jinan, China, although Google did not accuse any individuals or governments of orchestrating the attack.
Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the attack "very serious," and said that the FBI would launch an investigation, which Carney confirmed.
"As with all intrusions, we employ an all-of-government approach with the appropriate agency in the lead. In this case, the FBI is coordinating a response," he said.
President Obama is "obviously aware of it," Carney continued. "Threats to information and communications infrastructure pose a serious economic and national security challenge for the United States and our partners, which is why the president has made cyber security one of his top priorities."
Last month, the White House unveiled a cyber-security proposal that it hopes Congress will use as a framework for legislation. Among other things, the plan includes national data breach reporting, increased penalties for computer crimes, rules that would allow the private sector to commiserate with the Department of Homeland Security on cyber-security issues, and cyber-security audits for critical infrastructure providers.
Also yesterday, the Chinese government denied being the source of a Gmail hack. Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Hong Lei told reporters that "allegations that the Chinese government supports hacking activities are completely unfounded and made with ulterior motives." When asked about the denial, Carney reiterated that the White House is "not confirming any of the reports, except that we've seen them, we take cyber security very serious, and to refer you to the FBI, which is investigating this specific matter."