US says agencies largely fended off latest Russian hack

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says it believes U.S. government agencies largely fended off the latest cyberespionage onslaught blamed on Russia intelligence operatives, saying the spear-phishing campaign should not further damage relations with Moscow ahead of next month’s planned presidential summit.

Officials downplayed the cyber assault as “basic phishing.”

Microsoft, which disclosed the effort, said it believed most of the hacking attempts had been blocked by automated systems that marked them as spam.

Even so, the revelation of a new spy campaign so close to the planned June 16 summit likely adds to the urgency of White House efforts to confront the Kremlin over aggressive cyber activity that criminal indictments and diplomatic sanctions have done little to deter.