Users of computers from the Senate, Navy and Executive Branch offices are connected to a "notorious" revenge-porn site, according to news reports Thursday.
The site, an image board known as Anon-IB, allows people to share intimate images of others in order to intimidate, harass, or embarrass, The Daily Beast reports.
A security analyst provided data to the website showing that Anon-IB users connected from computers from the Senate, Navy, and other governmental computers, including the Executive Office of the President.
Anon-IB is a free message board where users post negative images, typically of women, the Daily Beast reports.
The site described Anon-IB as a "notorious image board" that allowed users to "upload non-consensual imagery, comment on it, and trade nudes like baseball cards."
"The data we're currently working with was obtained and analyzed to better understand who spreads the abusive imagery, and to show that abusers should have no greater hopes of invisibility than their victims," Einar Otto Stangvik, a security analyst at Norwegian newspaper VG, who provided the Daily Beast with the data.
His information included hundreds of thousands of Anon-IB users' IP addresses, numerical codes that can show from where a user is posting.
However, it was not immediately possible to tell who specifically was connecting to Anon-IB based solely on the IP addresses, according to the report.
An IP address does not necessarily refer to an individual.
But at least one post was linked to the Executive Office of the President, according to the data.
The office does include several agencies, including the National Security Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of the President.
Further, it was not totally clear which specific organization a poster might be working from, but the online data suggested that it could be the Office of Administration or the Office of Management and Budget.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
A U.S. Navy official told the site: "In order to have access to a Navy IT system, a user must sign a user agreement which stipulates not to use Navy IT resources in such a way that would be considered incompatible with public service, including pornography."
Any Navy personnel found to have violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice or applicable laws would be held accountable, the official said.
"The Navy holds all our employees, military and civilian, to the highest standards of personal conduct, expecting everyone to treat each other with dignity and respect," the official told The Daily Beast.
"Those who conduct themselves contrary to our core values of honor, courage and commitment will be held accountable."
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