White House Cites 'Active Threat,' Urges Action Despite Microsoft Patch White House Cites 'Active Threat,' Urges Action Despite Microsoft Patch The White House official, in a statement, said the administration was making "a whole of government response." A Microsoft representative said it was working with the government and others to help guide customers Washington: The White House on Sunday urged computer network operators to take further steps to gauge whether their systems were targeted amid a hack of Microsoft Corp's Outlook email program, saying a recent software patch still left serious vulnerabilities. "This is an active threat still developing and we urge network operators to take it very seriously," a White House official said, adding that top U.S. security officials were working to decide what next steps to take following the breach.