One day after a number of documents supposedly stolen during a hack on the Democratic National Committee servers were posted online, a cybersecurity expert says it is a clear act of “cyberwar.” “It’s really strange for a Russian intelligence agency,” Dave Aitel, an ex-NSA research scientist who’s now CEO of Immunity, told Tech Insider. “That’s straight up cyberwar.” At least two different groups associated with the Russian government were found inside the networks of the DNC over the past year, reading emails, chats, and downloading private documents, as was reported on Tuesday. The hack, which was investigated by the FBI and cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, was linked to Russia through a lengthy technical analysis, which was detailed on the firm’s blog. Aitel called the analysis “pretty dead on.”
The FBI told Tech Insider it would not “comment on or confirm” an investigation into the incident. But one day later, a supposed “lone wolf” hacker calling himself “Guccifer 2.0” created a new WordPress blog and published stolen documents – including a 200-plus page opposition research file on Donald Trump – in a supposed effort to obfuscate a link to Russian intelligence.
“There’s a possibility that this was a mistake,” Aitel said. “The crime of trying to influence a Democratic election has massive blowback potential.”
In Aitel’s view, the evidence is solid that Russian intelligence was indeed inside the DNC’s machines, and he doesn’t necessarily blame them – since foreign governments can likely find valuable insight into the next administration. But he and other cybersecurity experts aren’t sure why documents have been released in such a way.
Full Article: Immunity CEO Dave Aitel calls Russia hack on DNC ‘cyberwar’ – Tech Insider.