--- title: Barack Obama: Federal Government Hack Proof of System Vulnerability description: “The problem is not going to go away,” Obama said. canonical: https://time.com/3912596/obama-cybersecurity-g7-china-hacking-federal/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-08T16:23:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:00:27.972Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Says Cybersecurity Woes Will Get Worse og:description: “The problem is not going to go away.” og:url: https://time.com/3912596/obama-cybersecurity-g7-china-hacking-federal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb70e859026c9f6/69885370e20a878314a8bba6/ap371463180493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4743 og:image:height: 2668 og:image:alt: U.S. President Barack Obama ISIS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Says Cybersecurity Woes Will Get Worse twitter:description: “The problem is not going to go away.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb70e859026c9f6/69885370e20a878314a8bba6/ap371463180493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Says Cybersecurity Woes Will Get Worse Before They Get Better > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 8, 2015 4:23 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a press conference during the G7 summit at Elmau Castle in Elmau, Germany, on June 7, 2015 U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a press conference during the G7 summit at Elmau Castle in Elmau, Germany, on June 7, 2015 Sven Hoppe — AP Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 8, 2015 4:23 PM UTC U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday that the recent cyberattack that put millions of federal workers’ personal information in jeopardy was another indication of the “vulnerability” of government systems. And until Washington responds in a concrete way, he added, such problems are only going to proliferate. “We have known for a long time that there are significant vulnerabilities,” Obama said during a press conference after the G7 summit in Germany. “And these vulnerabilities are going to accelerate for a long time.” The President called on Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation that he says would address some of the vulnerabilities faced by government systems. He also touted his own administration’s efforts to update old systems to better protect against such problems, including the government’s anti-hacking Einstein program, which detected the latest breach. Obama would not comment on whether or not Chinese actors were behind the attack on the Office of Personnel Management, which is essentially the federal government’s human resources department. Some 4 million former and current federal employees are at risk of having their information stolen. U.S. officials said last Thursday that they believe the attack was launched from China, but as TIME’s [Mark Thompson](http://time.com/3910897/office-personnel-management-hack/) points out they have not yet laid out evidence to confirm that’s the case. In a piece Friday, Thompson found: --- > “” --- “The problem is not going to go away,” Obama said Monday, adding that the U.S. has to be as “nimble, aggressive, and well-resourced” as those trying to break into these systems. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3912596/obama-cybersecurity-g7-china-hacking-federal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3912596/obama-cybersecurity-g7-china-hacking-federal/"},"headline":"Obama Says Cybersecurity Woes Will Get Worse Before They Get Better","datePublished":"2015-06-08T16:23:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:00:27.972Z","description":"\"The problem is not going to go away\"","url":"https://time.com/3912596/obama-cybersecurity-g7-china-hacking-federal/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Obama","China","G7","cyber security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb70e859026c9f6/69885370e20a878314a8bba6/ap371463180493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb70e859026c9f6/69885370e20a878314a8bba6/ap371463180493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Barack Obama ISIS","caption":"U.S. President Barack Obama ISIS","creditText":"Sven Hoppe — AP Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3912596/obama-cybersecurity-g7-china-hacking-federal/","name":"Obama Says Cybersecurity Woes Will Get Worse Before They Get Better"}}]}] ```