The White House advisor told reporters the hackers attempted to gain access to Trump family member’s private emails, as well as campaign and administration officials. Mr O’Brien also said Microsoft disclosed the hack attempt to the White House. He then touted the US government’s “tremendous success on the cyberfront”, and said the country was prepared to handle election interference from foreign countries.
Mr O’Brien revealed the shock attack in a press conference, after Microsoft published a report about hack attempts.
The September 10 report detailed election hacking by Chinese, Russian and Iranian cyberactors earlier this months.
Mr O’Brien said he could not discuss more detail about the operations undertaken by the hackers due to the sensitivity of the issue.
But he added Microsoft “reported that the Chinese were trying to phish the Gmail accounts of Republican campaign officials, Trump family members, Trump administration officials.”