The Russian group linked to the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s presidential election campaign in 2016 has once again tried to target the websites of two right-wing US think-tanks, Microsoft has revealed in its latest report.
The software giant has attributed the hacking attacks to a group that it calls Strontium. It said it thwarted the attempts last week by taking control of sites that hackers had designed to mimic the pages of The International Republican Institute and The Hudson Institute. Users were redirected to fake addresses where they were asked to enter usernames and passwords.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said: “We’re concerned that these and other attempts pose security threats to a broadening array of groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections.”
He said the company had shut down 84 fake websites associated with Fancy Bear over the past two years by obtaining court orders to transfer control of the domains. As to where responsibility for the hacking attacks lay, Smith said: “We have no doubt in our minds.”
There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities, but the Kremlin was expected to address the report later today.
Leave a Comment