This weekend, Politico dropped a bombshell: A person who calls himself “Robert” shared paperwork allegedly stolen from Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign with information organizations.
We’ve since discovered that the New York Occasions and the Washington Submit additionally obtained messages from the identical particular person and obtained a number of the stolen paperwork. File dumps have the hallmarks of a hacker leak operation, which usually entails malicious hackers stealing delicate data and strategically leaking it with the objective of harming the hacker’s goal. The FBI stated it was investigating the hack. Trump himself has accused the Iranian authorities of violating the rule. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant, stated his e-mail account was compromised, which can have began all the operation, based on nameless sources who spoke to The Washington Submit.
If this all sounds acquainted, that is as a result of an virtually an identical hacking breach occurred earlier than the US election and can inevitably occur once more. It’s value looking again at earlier hacking leaks to focus on what we discovered then and the way these classes apply now.
In the summertime of 2016, a hacker known as himself Guccifer 2.0 and described himself as a Romanian “hacker, supervisor, thinker” [and] “Feminine Lover” claims to be behind the hack of the Democratic Nationwide Committee. That is stunning as a result of cybersecurity agency CrowdStrike accused Russian intelligence businesses of being behind the hack. Paradoxically, Roger Stone publicly revealed on the time that he was in touch with Guccifer 2.0 and used the hacker’s claims to assault Democrats.
But it surely seems that once I began asking Guccifer 2.0 some robust questions in 2016, their masks shortly began coming off. Two years later, the FBI confirmed that Guccifer 2.0 was certainly not a single Romanian hacker, however a determine managed by two brokers working for Russia’s navy intelligence service, often known as the Principal Intelligence Service, or GRU. Whereas I give myself credit score, I additionally wish to make clear that, to some extent, it was straightforward for me to deal with Guccifer 2.0 and their id and motivations reasonably than their leaked paperwork, just because I (and nonetheless do) am a community Safety reporters, not political reporters.
Presently, it’s unclear who “Robert” is on this newest case. However early indicators level to a repeat of Guccifer 2.0.
The day earlier than Politico reported on the Trump hack, Microsoft revealed that an Iranian government-backed hacking group “despatched a senior official within the presidential marketing campaign in June from a former senior adviser’s compromised e-mail account.” Microsoft didn’t establish the marketing campaign or the identify of the “former senior adviser” who was focused in a spear-phishing e-mail, however sources advised The Washington Submit and Politico that the federal authorities The bureau has been investigating hacking incidents on the Trump marketing campaign since June.
In a brand new report launched Wednesday, Google’s Risk Evaluation Group, which investigates government-backed hackers and threats, agreed with most of Microsoft’s assessments. Google stated it has proof that Iranian-backed hackers focused the non-public e-mail accounts of greater than a dozen people related to President Joe Biden and former President Trump as early as Might.
To recap: It appears to be like like Iranian authorities hackers might have compromised Stone, utilizing his e-mail account to focus on and infiltrate the Trump marketing campaign, stealing some paperwork (to this point we solely know of a assessment involving Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance paperwork associated to the method)), and at last, utilizing a persona – Robert – to contact reporters within the hope that they’ll report on the leaked paperwork.
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Do you have got extra details about the Trump marketing campaign hack? Or another politically motivated hack? On non-work units, you possibly can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely through Sign (+1 917 257 1382) or through Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb or e-mail. It’s also possible to contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop.
What was completely different from 2016 was the best way the media coated all the incident.
On the time, quite a few media shops took the Guccifer 2.0 paperwork, in addition to paperwork later stolen from Hillary Clinton’s then-campaign chairman John Podesta, and revealed tales that Basically amplifying the message that the Russian authorities needs the American public to deal with, particularly claims of corruption and malfeasance. Kathleen Corridor Jamieson, a professor at Penn State who wrote a e-book concerning the 2016 hacking marketing campaign, advised The Related Press this week that the media misrepresented a number of the leaked materials in 2016, which was crucial to Clinton. Extra injury was completed than it ought to have been.
This time, early protection of the Trump marketing campaign hack targeted on the breach itself reasonably than the content material of the leak, a transfer that has been praised by disinformation specialists.
“Political and [its journalist] Alex Isenstadt turned this story right into a story a couple of (bad-looking) overseas disinformation try, as an alternative of reporting on leaked Trump marketing campaign paperwork like this, so It deserves excessive reward.
It’s value noting that maybe this might all change if “Robert” decides to leak one thing the media considers extra newsworthy. It’s additionally essential to recollect, as my former colleague Joseph Cox wrote a number of years in the past, that there are lots of circumstances of hackers leaking data that’s within the public curiosity. These hacks and leaks deserve protection and protection. That will nonetheless be the case this time.
Regardless, it’s important that journalists present the complete context behind hacker leak operations, whether or not they’re initiated by hackers working for the federal government, in search of to undermine an election or sure presidential candidates, or by well-intentioned hacktivists .
When requested by Politico how the hackers obtained the paperwork, Robert reportedly stated: “I counsel you to not marvel the place I acquired these paperwork from. Any reply to that query would undermine my pursuits and legally prohibit you from publishing them.” .
Maybe Robert himself knew that, this time, reporters had discovered their lesson.
