Hackers believed to be working for the Russian government breached the network of the Democratic National Committee, and spied on internal communications by intercepting data from the Democratic presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Two separate groups reportedly broke into the DNC's system, managing to read all emails and monitor chat communications for nearly a full year before being detected, according to the company security CrowdStrike, which took it upon itself to fix the security holes.
Russian spies also monitored the networks of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as the computers of some Republican political action committees, according to a publication by The Washington Post.
A spokesman for the Russian government denied all involvement in the violations.
"Αποκλείουμε εντελώς την πιθανότητα να έχουν εμπλακεί (ρωσική) η κυβέρνηση ή κρατικοί φορείς σε αυτό", ανέφερε ο Dmitry Peskov, εκπρόσωπος του Κρεμλίνου, στο Reuters στη Μόσχα.
The invasion is indicative of the complexity of the technique of Russian hackers, which intelligence officials have long considered them to be the most talented ones.
The Democratic Party has reportedly been aware of the hackers' attempts to smuggle Trump material for two months, and even the US secret services have been involved in trying to find out who was behind hacking, a source familiar with the opposition study said.
The same source reported that agents of the Democratic Party believed that the hack was carried out by the Russian government.
Internet attacks on political candidates and organizations are common all over the world. NSA chief James Clapper said last month that he was aware of hacking attempts in campaigns and he was expecting more to be discovered by 8 in November for the presidential election.
The first group, CrowdStrike called Cozy Bear, entered the DNC systems last summer. He mainly watched email and chat conversations, and hackers could work for the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB.
Η δεύτερη ομάδα ονομάστηκε Fancy Bear, και είναι πιθανόν να εργάζονται για λογαριασμό των στρατιωτικών της Ρωσίας. Η ομάδα κατάφερε να αποκτήσει πρόσβαση στα τέλη Απριλίου και "πήγε κατ 'ευθείαν στην έρευνα της OPPO ... για τον Donald Trump."
Let's mention that in the last two US presidential rounds, 2008 and 2012, there was a barrage of cyber attacks by many opponents who were targeting President Barack Obama's campaign and his Republican rival campaign.
US intelligence officials have reported that many previous attacks have been linked to Chinese hackers.
