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Russia now hacking think tanks that advocate for sanctions

The Russian military intelligence unit that sought to influe...
wine sandwich
  08/21/18
Much too civilized. Hunt down and kill their wives and child...
Opaque wonderful brethren dopamine
  08/21/18
...
wine sandwich
  08/21/18
Find those emails!
diverse circlehead laser beams
  08/21/18
...
wine sandwich
  08/21/18


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Date: August 21st, 2018 8:27 AM
Author: wine sandwich

The Russian military intelligence unit that sought to influence the 2016 election appears to have a new target: conservative American think tanks that have broken with President Trump and are seeking continued sanctions against Moscow, exposing oligarchs or pressing for human rights.

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In a report scheduled for release on Tuesday, Microsoft Corporation said that it detected and seized websites that were created in recent weeks by hackers linked to the Russian unit formerly known as the G.R.U. The sites appeared meant to trick people into thinking they were clicking through links managed by the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute, but were secretly redirected to web pages created by the hackers to steal passwords and other credentials.

Microsoft also found websites imitating the United States Senate, but not specific Senate offices or political campaigns.

The shift to attacking conservative think tanks underscores the Russian intelligence agency’s goals: to disrupt any institutions challenging Moscow and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

The Hudson Institute has promoted programs examining the rise of kleptocracy in governments around the world, with Russia as a prime target. The International Republican Institute, which receives some funding from the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, has worked for decades in promoting democracy around the world.

“We are now seeing another uptick in attacks. What is particular in this instance is the broadening of the type of websites they are going after,” Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, said Monday in an interview.

“These are organizations that are informally tied to Republicans,” he said, “so we see them broadening beyond the sites they have targeted in the past.”

The International Republican Institute’s board of directors includes several Republican leaders who have been highly critical of Mr. Trump’s interactions with Mr. Putin, including a summit meeting last month between the two leaders in Helsinki, Finland.

Among them are Senator John McCain of Arizona; Mitt Romney, a former presidential candidate; and — though he was silent on Mr. Trump’s appearance in Helsinki — Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who was replaced in the spring as the White House national security adviser. General McMaster, who is now retired, had been the author of the national security strategy that called for treating Russia as a “revisionist power” and confronting it around the world.

“This is another demonstration of the fact that the Russians aren’t really pursuing partisan attacks, they are pursuing attacks that they perceive in their own national self-interest,” said Eric Rosenbach, the director of the Defending Digital Democracy project at Harvard University, on Monday. “It’s about disrupting and diminishing any group that challenges how Putin’s Russia is operating at home and around the world.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4056865&forum_id=2#36653806)



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Date: August 21st, 2018 8:28 AM
Author: Opaque wonderful brethren dopamine

Much too civilized. Hunt down and kill their wives and children. Much more Russian way of doing it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4056865&forum_id=2#36653808)



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Date: August 21st, 2018 10:39 AM
Author: wine sandwich



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4056865&forum_id=2#36654383)



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Date: August 21st, 2018 12:01 PM
Author: diverse circlehead laser beams

Find those emails!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4056865&forum_id=2#36654881)



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Date: August 21st, 2018 12:38 PM
Author: wine sandwich



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4056865&forum_id=2#36655122)