Clinton Foundation says there's no evidence it's been hacked
The Clinton Foundation has neither confirmed nor denied a Reuters report Wednesday that it hired the security firm FireEye to examine its data systems following suspicions of a possible cyber breach, a Clinton Foundation official told CBS News, but the official did say that the foundation’s systems did not appear to have been hacked.
“We have no evidence Clinton Foundation systems were breached and have not been notified by law enforcement of an issue,” the official said. But he added that it’s prudent for any organization to take protective measures.
Though no foundation documents or messages have emerged so far, tensions remain high after the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server revealed possible links between the foundation and the State Department last week--an idea that has been disputed by the Clinton campaign.
FireEye Vice President Charles Carmakal declined to comment on its relationship with the Clinton Foundation, but he did elaborate on how the company approaches and evaluates cyber threats based on the client’s needs and the specific nature of the threat. He added that organizations can use its security services regardless of whether a confirmed threat has been identified.
One of those services, Carmakal described, is a “compromise assessment,” where companies--even those without evidence of a breach--can ask security experts to come in and preemptively inspect the cyber environment. For example, he said, companies sometimes seek this particular assessment when another company operating in a similar industry has been attacked.
Concerns about a cyber breach into the Clinton Foundation come just a few weeks after WikiLeaks published over 19,000 Democratic National Committee emails just before the party’s nominating convention. On Thursday, DNC donors told Politico that their identities had been stolen, including their personal information and Social Security numbers. They blamed DNC officials for not adequately protecting their most sensitive data.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign could not be reached for comment for this story.