Report: Prankster Tricked Several White House Officials With Fake Emails

Homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Tom Bossert speaks about malware known as WannaCry, Monday, May 15, 2017, during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington. President Donald Trump’s ho... Homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Tom Bossert speaks about malware known as WannaCry, Monday, May 15, 2017, during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington. President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser has a message to those blaming U.S. intelligence agencies for the cyberattack encircling the globe: Don’t point a finger at the National Security Agency. Blame the hackers. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) MORE LESS
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A prankster in the United Kingdom tricked several Trump administration officials with emails pretending to be other White House officials or Trump family members, CNN reported Monday night.

White House officials told CNN that they are looking into the matter.

“We take all cyber related issues very seriously and are looking into these incidents further,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN.

In one incident, the prankster pretended to be Jared Kushner in an email to Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert (pictured above), inviting him to a “soirée,” according to CNN. In response, Bossert gave the fake Kushner his personal email address, per CNN.

The prankster also emailed since-ousted White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci after Reince Priebus was fired as chief of staff, per CNN. The prankster pretended to be Priebus and told Scaramucci that the way he was ousted was hurtful,” CNN reported. Scaramucci then exchanged several emails with the fake Priebus, telling him, “You know what you did,” according to the CNN report.

It does not appear that the White House officials fooled by the prankster clicked on any links that would have made their accounts vulnerable, according to CNN.

Read CNN’s entire report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. Looks like the Finely Tuned Machine’s plan to make Tuesday even crazier than Monday is off to a good start.

  2. Avatar for gemut gemut says:

    Is it really only Tuesday? This is going to be a great week! #MAGA

  3. Sounds like the hacker believed in picking the Low(IQ)-hanging fruit.
    Theres a serious side to this. Most of the legitimate Liberian princes I know are having a problem moving those funds to the U.S. Bossert made a big mistake not clicking that link.

  4. Perhaps UK_Observer has a new schtick?

  5. If only e-mail best practices had been raised as a campaign issue.

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