October 4, 2016 | No Comments
A hacker persona with alleged ties to the Russian government has posted what the hacker claims are files stolen from the Clinton Foundation, but the foundation says the assertions are not true.
“Hillary Clinton and her staff don’t even bother about the information security,” the hacker calling himself “Guccifer 2.0” wrote in the post revealing the files. “It was just a matter of time to gain access to the Clinton Foundation server.”
But in a statement issued shortly after the files appeared online, the Clinton Foundation denied Guccifer 2.0’s claims.
“Once again, we still have no evidence Clinton Foundation systems were breached and have not been notified by law enforcement of an issue,” a foundation official said. “None of these folders or files shown are from the Clinton Foundation.”
According to screenshots, the files include spreadsheets tracking Foundation donors and financial institutions that have donated to lawmakers.
One person familiar with the documents said the files appeared to be from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which was hacked earlier this summer.
There are several indications in the documents that they originated with the DCCC, including a note apparently written by the group’s rapid response director.
“Given the Russians’ long track record of faking the origin and doctoring the content of documents acquired through cyberattacks, the committee is working to determine if these were stolen from our network,” said Meredith Kelly, DCCC national press secretary.
One spreadsheet appears to detail how much banks have given to lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee. Another document shows how much banks gave to Democratic lawmakers and how much those banks received from the 2008 bailout bill to stabilize the financial sector, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
“It looks like big banks and corporations agreed to donate to the Democrats a certain percentage of the allocated TARP funds,” wrote Guccifer 2.0.
Some cybersecurity experts believe Guccifer 2.0 is an invented identity that the Russian government is using to release files it obtains through hacking.
Russian intelligence services are suspected in a series of high-profile election hacks targeting Democratic institutions, party officials and state voter-registration databases.
U.S. officials reportedly have high confidence that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee, but have not yet publicly blamed Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied any role in the incidents.
The hack came on the same day that WikiLeaks held a much-anticipated press conference in honor of its 10th anniversary, where many expected the anti-secrecy organization to release files on the Clinton Foundation or U.S. election process. The organization had previously released nearly 20,000 internal emails likely stolen during the DNC hack.
But WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that the upcoming dump of U.S. election-related material would come at a later date.
In Tuesday’s Guccifer 2.0 post featuring Clinton Foundation information, the hacker referenced WikiLeaks.
“P.S. I’m pleased to congratulate Wikileaks on their 10th anniversary!!! Julian, you are really cool! Stay safe and sound!”