Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach.
The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC’s system they also were able to read all e-mail and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts.
The intrusion into the DNC was one of several targeting American political organizations. The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some GOP political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available.
A Russian Embassy spokesman said he had no knowledge of such intrusions.
Some of the hackers had access to the DNC network for about a year, but all were expelled over the past weekend in a major computer clean-up campaign, the committee officials and experts said.
The DNC said that no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken, suggesting that the breach was traditional espionage, not the work of criminal hackers.
Let's face it, Putin has all the information he wants on Hillary Clinton already. And who would have better dirt on Trump than the DNC? Saves you the time from having to gather it yourself. Of course the Russians want to know everything they can about American politicians.
The intrusions are an example of Russia’s interest in the U.S. political system and its desire to understand the policies, strengths and weaknesses of a potential future president — much as American spies gather similar information on foreign candidates and leaders.
The depth of the penetration reflects the skill and determination of the United States’ top cyber adversary as Russia goes after strategic targets from the White House and State Department to political campaign organizations.
“It’s the job of every foreign intelligence service to collect intelligence against their adversaries,” said Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike, the cyber firm called in to handle the DNC breach and a former head of the FBI’s cyber division. He noted that it is extremely difficult for a civilian organization to protect itself from a skilled and determined state such as Russia.
And it's not like we don't engage in the same activities against other world leaders, guys.
The question is why leak the news now? Pretty sure we'll find out when the other shoe drops during the campaign. I mean, if you're Trump, getting your good buddy Vlad to steal the DNC's oppo research on you is brilliant. It's like Watergate, only totally legal. You think maybe this is about Trump throwing the newspaper out yesterday?
I'll tell you who looks like the loser in all this: Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Can this finally be the excuse to get rid of her?
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