Fresh on the heels of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump inviting Vladimir Putin to “find” Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails, the FBI has uncovered a cyberattack on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that could be tied to Russia.
The DCCC raises money for Democrats running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. As far back as June, the attackers set up a bogus website with a name closely resembling that of a main donation site connected to the DCCC. From there, they proceeded to harvest data as visitors provided their information (including names and email addresses) and credit-card info to donate.
While the Kremlin denied involvement in the attack, sources told Reuters that the IP address used is similar to one used by Russian government-linked hackers suspected in the breach of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) earlier this week.
Over the weekend, just as the Democratic National Convention started up in Philadelphia, Wikileaks began publishing emails purportedly coming from DNC officials; more than 19,000 of them, in a searchable database. The missives show a distinct bias within the DNC for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her main rival in the primaries, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Some believe that the hack is an attempt by the Russian government to sway the US election in favor of Republican candidate Donald Trump, who told the New York Times that the US wouldn't defend NATO allies against Russia unless those states have "fulfilled their obligation to us."
"I have concerns that an agency of foreign intelligence is hacking and interfering with a U.S. election," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told Reuters. He added that he had not seen news of the DCCC attack.
Trump went on to make headlines after a press conference in which he pooh-poohed the theory, saying, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
He was referring to the Democratic nominee’s controversial email practices when she was Secretary of State, and later said that the remark was sarcastic.
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