Russian Hackers Said to Seek Hush Money From Liberal Groups

[Cattledog]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-06/russian-hackers-said-to-seek-hush-money-from-liberal-u-s-groups

Russian hackers are targeting U.S. progressive groups in a new wave of attacks, scouring the organizations’ emails for embarrassing details and attempting to extract hush money, according to two people familiar with probes being conducted by the FBI and private security firms.

At least a dozen groups have faced extortion attempts since the U.S. presidential election, said the people, who provided broad outlines of the campaign. The ransom demands are accompanied by samples of sensitive data in the hackers’ possession.

In one case, a non-profit group and a prominent liberal donor discussed how to use grant money to cover some costs for anti-Trump protesters. The identities were not disclosed, and it’s unclear if the protesters were paid.

At least some groups have paid the ransoms even though there is little guarantee the documents won’t be made public anyway. Demands have ranged from about $30,000 to $150,000, payable in untraceable bitcoins, according to one of the people familiar with the probe.

Attribution is notoriously difficult in a computer attack. The hackers have used some of the techniques that security experts consider hallmarks of Cozy Bear, one of the Russian government groups identified as behind last year’s attack on the Democratic National Committee during the presidential election and which is under continuing investigation. Cozy Bear has not been accused of using extortion in the past, though separating government and criminal actors in Russia can be murky as security experts say some people have a foot in both worlds.

[Wounded Bear]

1. And so it continues...

[AJT]

2. Are hackers all rightwingers?

Is there no one on the left hacking rightwing groups? I can't imagine the hideous stuff in rightwing xenophobic email.

[Jake Stern]

3. This presumes that hackers have a sense of honor instead of being driven by $$$$$

My feeling is they will work for whichever side pays them the most money and it wouldn't be a bit surprising to find that the right has handed out quite a bit of dough to them. Hackers in this case get to have their cake and eat it too: they get payola from the Russian government or American conservative money men and they get payoffs from their victims.

It's also a win-win for the patrons - they get to shake down progressive and dissident orgs while keeping the hackers from prying too deep in their closet.