Bloomberg: Russian hackers extort money from American organizations for non-disclosure of information
Uncategorized March 7, 2017
Associated with Russian hackers staged a series of attacks on American
liberal organizations and now demanding a ransom for the protection of confidential information found in their hands as a result of e-mail hacking and network applications, in particular SharePoint allows you to share Microsoft Office files. It is reported Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the FBI and private security companies.
According to the Agency, among the victims of ransomware was the Center for American progress (Center for American Progress) associated with former President Barack Obama and rival Donald trump in the election of ex-Secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The representatives of the organization severely criticized the management of the trump and call for investigation of alleged ties his team to Moscow. In addition, writes Bloomberg, the money extorted from of Arabella Advisors, providing Advisory services to the liberal donors.
The article also mentions the incident with the requirement of the payment of ransom from one of the nonprofit organizations, among the data which was found a correspondence with the discussion with the sponsor opportunities for the use of the grant to cover the expenses of participants of protests against trump.
Says Bloomberg, some blackmailing the organization paid for the confidentiality of information. The Agency notes that the attempts of extortion faced at least a dozen such groups. Hackers demanded to pay from 30 thousand to 150 thousand dollars in bitcoins, the article says.
The FBI refused to comment on new cyber attacks. At the same time, according to Agency experts, hackers used tools similar to those used by members of the group Cozy Bear breaking into computer networks of the Democratic party on the eve of the US presidential elections of 2016.
Last year, cybersecurity experts the US saidthat the hacker attacks during the election campaign were group Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear. It was reported that these hackers, possibly working for Russian intelligence, including for exploration. As you know, at the end of December the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama imposed sanctions against Russia because of the attacks. In the Kremlin involvement in hacker attacks in the United States has repeatedly rejected.
Meanwhile, fears that Russia is using hackers will try to interfere in elections in the EU countries, continue to speak. Authorities are looking for ways to avoid danger. In mid-February, French President Francois Hollande has instructed the government to develop measures to protect the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in the country from cyber attacks.
The Netherlands decided to protect, and far away from modern technology, and to count the votes in the scheduled for 15 March parliamentary elections manually. According to the government, this approach ensures that the electoral process is safeguarded against interference of foreign countries, including Russia.
“This is one of the most radical responses to the threat have also started to try to fight France and Germany, where elections will be held this year”, – writes the edition of Politico, an article from which leads InoPressa. “I don’t want to leave any doubt about the outcome in this political climate, as it is now,” – said on this occasion, the Minister of the interior Ronald Plasterk.