Russian hacking of the mid-term US elections in 2018 has already begun, warns Microsoft



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The hacking group tasked with targeting political entities during the 2016 US presidential election has already attempted to target staff members linked to three mid-term candidates this year, a senior official warned on Thursday. from Microsoft. Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for security and customer trust of Microsoft, revealed the existence of a hacking activity with the terms halfway into the Troen collimator

. in 2016, his team spotted false Microsoft domain names exploited to launch convincing phishing attacks. It was a tactic used to cram and publish emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), former White House chief of staff John Podesta and others.

The same approach to cybercrime has been recorded again. "Earlier this year, we discovered that a fake Microsoft domain had been established as a landing page for phishing attacks and we saw metadata suggesting that these phishing attacks were directed against three candidates who run in the mid-term elections ". Noted

 The Russian President Vladimir Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin answers questions about the collusion of the 2016 US elections at a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump after their July 16, 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland. Chris McGrath / Getty Images

"We Can not Disclose [their identities] because we maintain the confidentiality of our customers, but I can tell you that they were all people who, because of their positions, could have been interesting targets from the point of view of espionage and from the point of view of electoral disturbances.

"We eliminated this area and we managed to avoid that, "said Burt

For Microsoft engineers, the hacking team in question is Strontium. But the band is also known as a series of other titles, including APT28, Fancy Bear and Pawn Storm. The experts claim that, based on the tools used and the common objectives, its activities have close links with the Russian military intelligence unit, known as the GRU

Microsoft, which has worked with the conventions Republican and democratic, technology platforms, such as Facebook, to share information about threats. Last March, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he expected phishing attacks – which are a real service for the purpose of hijacking the user's names and passwords – continue. The hacker campaign is not yet at the same level as previous operations.

"I would say that the consensus of the community of threat intelligence is that we do not see the same level of activity on the part of Russian activity groups." We do not see the # 39, activity of them trying to infiltrate think tanks, universities and social networks to do the research that they do for the mid-year elections that we could see when we watch the elections of 2016. "Build the phishing attacks that they then launch.We do not see any continuous activity like the one we were able to disrupt earlier this year." But he added, "That does not mean that we will not see it, there is still a lot of time before the elections. "[19659002TheAmericanTeachingCommunityhasstatedpreviouslythatthemaingoalofthe2007-2016informationcampaignwastohelpHilaryClintonandhelptoelectDonaldTrump

Experts believe that stolen emails were sent to whistleblowing 2.0, "a statement claimed by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Last week, the US government indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers allegedly linked to the piracy of the DNC

President Trump, whose stance on Russian piracy remained incoherent, was recently forced to clarify the Kremlin was still aimed at US political entities. Trump initially said that he saw no reason why would be "Russia." In the midst of a violent reaction, he later asserted that he meant " would not do it ."

The 2018 mid-term elections will be held on November 6.

 Trump and Putin President of the United States Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki on July 16, 2018. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images [19659019] [ad_2]
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