White House: President has been briefed on computer glitches affecting NYSE and United - but no 'malicious' activity is suspected

  • The two incidents do not appear to be related; unclear if the president was also briefed on the website outage at the Wall Street Journal
  • Homeland Security and Treasury continue to monitor the situation
  • DHS separately said it did not believe 'nefarious' activity was underway; the FBI said 'no further law enforcement action is need at this time'

President Barack Obama was briefed this afternoon on the computer glitches affecting the New York Stock Exchange and United, the White House says, and the two incidents do not appear to be related.

His spokesman said he was unclear if the president was also briefed on the website outage at the Wall Street Journal.

He further stated that, 'at this point there is no indication that malicious actors were involved in these tech issues.' 

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President Barack Obama was briefed this afternoon on the computer glitches affecting the New York Stock Exchange and United, the White House says, and the two do not appear to be related.

President Barack Obama was briefed this afternoon on the computer glitches affecting the New York Stock Exchange and United, the White House says, and the two do not appear to be related.

Earnest said that the president was briefed by his Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco and his Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and has asked to be kept up to date on the high profile technological issues throughout the day.

The NYSE has been in close contact with the Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury Department and Securities Exchange Commission, the White House official noted and DHS and Treasury continue to monitor the situation. 

He told reporters that he is not 'aware of a federal investigation' at this juncture, but that does not mean there will not be one in the future.

'We're obviously in the very early stages of this,' he said, noting that an investigation would likely come under the SEC's jurisdiction, rather than Homeland Security. 

The NYSE is 'working vigorously to try to resolve the situation,' he said, and directed reporters to the private entity for additional updates about the outage, which stopped trading at 11:30 am this morning. 

The White House confirmed that the President was briefed on the issues: 'At this point there in no indication of malicious actions,' said spokesman Josh Earnest

The White House confirmed that the President was briefed on the issues: 'At this point there in no indication of malicious actions,' said spokesman Josh Earnest

It is rare for trading to stop suddenly as it did today and it is has not happened for several years, leading observers to worry that a cyber attack, possibly by a foreign entity was underway, particularly after a glitch grounded United planes for several hours this morning, as well.  

The Homeland Security Department separately said today that it did not believe 'nefarious' activity was underway as it pertained to the computer glitches. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said 'no further law enforcement action is need at this time' but that it too would continue to monitor the situation.

Roughly an hour after trading had stopped the NYSE pronounced on Twitter, 'The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach.'

It said it 'chose' to suspend trading as it worked through the issue, which it first made note of this morning, at 8 am Eastern, and thought it had resolved.

The White House for its part said it had no information to share about new steps the federal government is taking to enhance its security measures in light of today's incident, saying it is always 'vigilant' about protecting its own systems against cyber hacks.

The federal government's Office of Personnel Management was revealed last month to have been hacked by the Chinese, though the administration has refused to blame the country by name for the massive data breach affecting millions of government employees. 

The hack came as the Obama administration was pressing Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation that would help protect private and federal entities alike from future attacks.

The bipartisan legislation would, among other things, break down information sharing barriers between the federal government and the private sector as it pertains to cyber threats.

Earnest today said the NYSE is an example of an entity that has a 'strong' relationship with the federal government and today's events prove the importance of effective information sharing and communication between the private sector and the government when hacks are suspected.


 

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