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This weekend , Politicodropped a intelligence bombshell : A somebody who only goes by “ Robert ” had share with the news organization document allegedly stolen from the Donald Trump presidential campaign .
Since then , we have learned thatThe New York TimesandThe Washington Posthave also heard from the same person and received some steal text file . The document waste-yard has the hallmarks of a ward-heeler - and - news leak operation , which typically involves malicious hackers stealing sore entropy and strategically leaking it with the goal of hurting the fair game of the cab . The FBI has said it is investigating the hack . Trump himselfhas accusedthe Iranian administration of the breach . Longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone said his electronic mail write up was compromised , which is potential where the whole operation began , consort toanonymous peoplewho talk to The Washington Post .
If this all sounds intimate it ’s because anear - identical hack - and - escape operation ahead of a U.S. electionhappened before and will inevitably find again . It ’s worth going back in time to a previous hack - and - leak operation to highlight what we discover then , and how those lessons apply now .
In the summertime of 2016 , a hacker who discover themselves by the moniker Guccifer 2.0 and discover themselves as a Rumanian “ hacker , manager , philosopher [ and ] women lover , ” claimed to be behindthe drudge of the Democratic National Committee . This add up as a surprise because cybersecurity house CrowdStrikehad accuseda Russian intelligence agency of being behind the hacker . In what is now an ironic twist , Roger Stone at the timepublicly revealedhe was in touch with Guccifer 2.0 and piggyback on the drudge ’s claims to aggress the Democrats .
But as it turned out , once I started ask Guccifer 2.0 some pointed questions back in 2016,their mask quickly jump to decrease off . Two years afterwards , the FBI sustain that Guccifer 2.0 was indeed no lone Roumanian hack , buta character controlled by two agentsworking for Russia ’s military intelligence unit of measurement , the Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU . While Ipat myself on the back , I also need to be clear that , in a way , it was well-heeled for me to focalise on Guccifer 2.0 and their identity operator and motive rather than the papers they were leak , just because I was ( and still am ) a cybersecurity newsperson , not a political reporter .
At this point and in this late case , it ’s unclear who “ Robert ” really is . But former house manoeuver to a repeat of the Guccifer 2.0 post .
Just a day before Politico ’s report on the Trump hack , Microsoftrevealed that an Persian government - endorse hacking group“sent a spear phishing email in June to a high - ranking functionary on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor . ” Microsoft did not say which campaign it was , nor did it name the “ former aged advisor ” who was aim , but sources have since toldThe Washington PostandPoliticothat the FBI has been investigating the Trump campaign hack since June .
Ina new report out Wednesday , Google ’s Threat Analysis Group , which investigates government - back hackers and threats , concurred with much of Microsoft ’s assessment . Google said it has grounds that Iran - backed hackers were behind the targeting of personal email accounts of about a dozen soul affiliated with President Biden and former President Trump as early as May .
To review : It look like Persian government hackers may have compromised Stone , used his electronic mail account to then target and penetrate the Trump campaign , slip some documents ( for now we only know of files related to the vetting process of Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance ) and , last , used a persona — Robert — to meet journalist , hoping they would underwrite the leaked written document .
What is dissimilar from what happened in 2016 is how the medium is covering this whole write up .
At the time , countless media outlets take the Guccifer 2.0 documents — and later those stolenfrom Hillary Clinton ’s then - campaign chairman John Podesta — and ran story that essentially amplified the message that the Russian government want the American public to sharpen on , namely claim of corruption and malfeasance . Kathleen Hall Jamieson , a University of Pennsylvania prof who wrote a book about the 2016 whoop drive , told the Associated Pressthis hebdomad that in 2016 the media misrepresented some of the leaked material in a means that was more prejudicious to Clinton than it should have been .
This time , the former coverage of the Trump campaign hack - and - passing water has focus on the plug - and - leakage operation itself , and not so much on what was leak , something that disinformation experts have praise .
“ Politico and [ its journalist ] Alex Isenstadt merit substantial credit for turning this narrative into a floor about a ( miserable , it appears ) foreign disinformation effort , rather of cut through the leaked Trump campaign documents as such,”said Thomas Rid , a professor at Johns Hopkins and someone whoclosely followedthe 2016 Russian hacking and disinformation campaign .
It ’s significant to note that this all might alter , perhaps if or when “ Robert ” decide to leak something that the media considers more newsworthy . It ’s also authoritative to remember that , as my former confrere Joseph Coxwrote a few twelvemonth ago , there have beenmanycasesofhackersleakinginformationthat was in the public sake . The data in those hack and leaks merit to be covered and reported on . That may still prove to be the case this clip , too .
disregarding , it ’s important that journalists give the whole context behind hack - and - leak operations , no matter if they are launched by hackers working for regime hear to subvert election or sealed presidential candidates , or hacktivists with right intentions .
When Politico asked the hacker about how they got the written document , Robert reportedly said : “ I suggest you do n’t be singular about where I got them from . Any solution to this doubtfulness , will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them . ”
Perhaps Robert himself knows that , this time , journalists have get wind the lesson .
