Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
“The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC’s system they also were able to read all email and chat traffic,” the paper said, citing committee officials and security experts.Those officials also said some of the hackers had access to the DNC’s network for about a year.
Shawn Henry, President and Chief Security Officer of CrowdStrike Services and former FBI agent, told MSNBC his team was able to identify and track the hackers to the Russian government.
“We know with certainty, my time in the bureau and now at CrowdStrike, that foreign intelligence services are constantly interested in political processes. They’re interested in strategies. They’re interested in foreign policy, etcetera,” Henry told MSNBC. “And the DNC and other NGOs that have been targeted over the years by this very, very sophisticated group with a high degree of capability and some very, very sophisticated technology.”
The DNC told the Post that no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed, which suggests the breach was traditional espionage, not the work of criminals, the Post reported.
“It’s the job of every foreign intelligence service to collect intelligence against their adversaries,” Henry told the Post.
CrowdStrike told the Post that it identified two separate groups that infiltrated the DNC’s network. One had gained access last summer and was monitoring the DNC’s communications.
The other infiltrated the network in late April and targeted the opposition research files. It was this breach that set off the alarm, the Post reported.
