An Associated Press investigation reveals Russian hackers have been targeting journalists as aggressively as they have politicians and intelligence officials:
The espionage group known as Fancy Bear tried to break into Gmail inboxes of at least 200 reporters, publishers and bloggers as early as mid-2014 and as recently as a few months ago, according to an analysis of data supplied by the cybersecurity firm Secureworks and interviews with more than 40 journalists. The list provides a kind of map of the media outlets that regularly draw the Kremlin’s ire.
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The list provides new evidence for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Fancy Bear — which Secureworks calls Iron Twilight — acted on behalf of the Russian government when it intervened in the U.S. presidential election, a charge the Kremlin denies.
The AP says it is not just whom the hackers targeted but when they tried that implicates the Russian government, citing several examples:
The clearest timing may be that of writer Adrian Chen, who has often covered the darker reaches of the internet.
On June 2, 2015, Chen published a prescient expose of the Internet Research Agency, the Russian “troll factory” that won fresh infamy in October over revelations that it had manufactured make-believe Americans to pollute social media with partisan rhetoric ahead of the 2016 election.
Eight days after Chen published his big story, Fancy Bear tried to break into his account.
Full story: Election hackers pursued reporters in Russia, United States (AP)