White House Says It Briefed Allies and Partners Following Intelligence Leak
Following the leak of sensitive United States intelligence about the Russia–Ukraine war, the White House says it has briefed affected allies and partners at “very high levels.”
The list of allies is likely to include Canada, as the leaked documents—which have not been verified by The Epoch Times—reportedly show that Russian-backed hackers successfully accessed Canada’s natural gas infrastructure.
The leaked documents—which appear to have been altered in certain spots—include sensitive U.S. assessments of the ongoing war in Ukraine and a warning about the risk of a cyberattack in Canada. While the report doesn’t name a specific Canadian energy company, it claims hackers were instructed by a Russian intelligence officer to maintain access to the computer network and “wait for further instruction.”
Cybersecurity expert Lesley Carhart said while the oil and gas industry is an attractive target for sabotage, the likelihood of hackers successfully disrupting Canada’s energy supply through a cyberattack is low.
In March, over 100 U.S. intelligence documents were leaked and posted on the messaging app Discord. They contained information about Russian military activity, the conflict in Ukraine, the Chinese Communist Party’s military forces, and the Middle East. Some of the materials appeared to have come from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said on April 9 that President Joe Biden has formed a team that is now “focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on U.S. national security and on our allies and partners.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the leak has been referred for criminal investigation, but could not say if it had been fully contained. He said both the Department of Defense and the Justice Department are running separate investigations into the national security implications of the leak, as well as determining who is responsible.
Kirby said that officials don’t know who is responsible for the leak, and are also not aware if the leakers hold more intelligence documents they intend to leak online. He added that the intelligence materials have “no business in the public domain” or on the “front pages of newspapers.”
“There is no excuse for these kinds of documents to be in the public domain. They don’t deserve to be in the public domain,” Kirby said.
“In order to protect this country every day the way we do, one of the things we have to protect is information. We will keep relevant allies and partners as informed as we can going forward.”
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
