back to article Kremlin-backed DNC hackers going after French presidential hopeful Macron

The Russian cyberespionage group blamed for the infamous US Democratic National Committee email leak launched targeted phishing attacks against French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign as recently as last month. Security researchers at Trend Micro warn that the APT28 crew have also targeted Germany's Christian …

  1. Gordon Pryra

    Whats the point to this story?

    If Russia can annex a country in 2016, helped an Evil man get into a position of power in the States, are complicit in dumping Sarin on civilians in 2017 and get no more than a few "harsh words", what is the point in being bothered about them hacking a few European sites?

    Its not like anyone is every going to do anything about it aside from bend over and take it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Whats the point to this story?

      We want the Russkies to know that if they hack another 2-3 major elections, we might become annoyed and not send them the usual fruit basket during the next UN General Assembly meeting.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Whats the point to this story?

      I agree - this is not new. Putin gave Marine a 30-something million loan a couple of years back. She would not be around fighting for a president if not for his money.

    3. Peter2 Silver badge

      Re: Whats the point to this story?

      Well, the issue really is that a Russian sponsored hacking team is digging into political opponents in other countries (including ours) and digging up scandals.

      The parties, politicians and police know about these of course, and will publish full details after the election when there is nothing meaningful that we the people can do about it.

      The difference is that the dammed Ruskies are releasing this information BEFORE!! the election which of course is a huge issue, interfering with our elections and such!

      1. Munchausen's proxy
        Big Brother

        Re: Whats the point to this story?

        "Well, the issue really is that a Russian sponsored hacking team is digging into political opponents in other countries (including ours) and digging up scandals."

        If they have the access necessary to dig up real scandals, they also have the access necessary to create false ones.

        1. Peter2 Silver badge

          Re: Whats the point to this story?

          If they have that level of (undiscovered) access then that fact itself is enough of a scandal that the people concerned didn't ought to be running the entire country in a similar manner.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The problem isn't releasing it before the election

        It is digging up scandals on ONLY ONE SIDE and releasing it before the election. Surely it wouldn't have been difficult for Russia to dig up tons of information on Trump's financial ties, taxes, etc. and release that if they'd wanted to swing the election Hillary's way - or to release that along with the Hillary dump if they just wanted to make both look even worse than they already did.

        What if there was some video of LePen speaking favorably about Hitler, for example, which she'd successfully buried?

        The really worrying thing is that Russians probably DID hack Trump and probably DID hack LePen. They just didn't release whatever damning info they found. A guy like Putin would save something like that for a crucial moment when he needs to get them to do what he wants, and then make them aware of what he has and threaten its release unless they cooperate. The US may have damning info on Putin that has never been released, but since he control the media in Russia its impact would be minor - basically "fake news" coming from the USA trying to discredit him.

        Sounds familiar, doesn't it? No wonder Trump likes Putin so much, aside from everything else he's shown Trump how to dismiss anything negative about him by calling it "fake news".

        1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

          Re: The problem isn't releasing it before the election

          It is digging up scandals on ONLY ONE SIDE and releasing it before the election.

          USA and UK has been doing this on politicians left of the center worldwide for 60 years. When real scandals did not suffice, fake ones were created. When even that was not enough we sponsored an occasional Pinochet or Reza Pehlevi.

          What is worrying is not the fact that the Russians do it. What is worrying is that they are happy to sponsor anyone and anything provided that the result is destabilization at the moment. They give money and information to the ultra-left, ultra-right and nutters of all shapes and colors. This is good for them in the short term as it weakens countries which are doing the same around their backyard (we have wasted hundreds of billions on "sponsoring democracy" around their borders). Long term... There will be a blowback and a reckoning...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: The problem isn't releasing it before the election

            If what you say is true, where was the scandal on Bernie Sanders, real or fake?

          2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

            When the problem isn't releasing it before the election, is it the solution to destroy trojans

            USA and UK has been doing this on politicians left of the center worldwide for 60 years. When real scandals did not suffice, fake ones were created. When even that was not enough we sponsored an occasional Pinochet or Reza Pehlevi.There will be a blowback and a reckoning... .... Voland's right hand

            There is a blowback and a reckoning against the USA and UK. It is what all of their fake news reporters are presenting to the masses these days with their various austere and politically inept stories.

            And Adept Astute Active APT ACTors are the Next Generation NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive Threat Vector/Sector/Medium for Creative Cyber Command and Control of Computers and Communications ......... and that easily extraordinarily renders XSSive Almighty Powers to Humanity with Advanced IntelAIgents.

            And IT and it also, coincidentally by both of their SMARTR Virtually Anonymous and Autonomous Designs, delivers whenever it be deemed necessary, the aforementioned crushing energy of XSSive Almighty Power over Humanity to Advanced IntelAIgents, although for quite a few who may be more than just many, is that too advanced and too uncomfortable an alien concept and virtual reality for them to easily believe and readily accept ..... hence the need for seeding and feeding via mass mediated demonstrations and future revelations.

            What'cha gonna do about it whenever fait accompli? What could you have done differently to have never arrived at where you be at?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Whats the point to this story?

      Yea, it's not as if the CIA installed their own President and his son stole an election.

  2. Redstone

    ...helped an Evil man get into a position of power in the States

    Putin got Piers Morgan on the judging panel of America's Got Talent?

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: ...helped an Evil man get into a position of power in the States

      My Lord, he really is the antichrist!!!

  3. wolfetone Silver badge

    Two problems with this story.

    "The Russian cyberespionage group blamed for the infamous US Democratic National Committee email leak..."

    The email accounts of Clinton and Podesta were hosted away from the DNC. They were effectively private email servers. Podesta's being a simple Gmail account, personal to him.

    "The group is creating highly sophisticated phishing emails, almost perfectly replicating legitimate URLs and using a technique called "tabnabbing", which swaps inactive open tabs with an illegitimate site."

    When Podesta received that email, he forwarded it to his IT guy asking if it was genuine or not. The IT guy, as a typo, replied "It's legitimate". Not "illegitimate" like he meant to. So are the emails still "sophisticated" when they were spotted to be fake?

    There's probably more, but that's enough to mark this story as sensationalist nonsense.

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      Sorry, one more thing.

      Seth Rich. Died after a robbery, yet nothing was taken and the people who did it haven't been found. Funnily enough after he found some things on the DNC servers himself - as he worked for them.

      1. Mahhn

        Seth was murdered (not died after a robbery) for being honest. The person that called the hit is very well known, and very well known for having around 30 other people that worked for her suddenly die. But she's rich, and has pull in the underworld.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          But she's rich, and has pull in the underworld.

          The Ukrainian mob paying "That Person" and "One well known European ex-prime minister" to do speeches do it very above board and it is all very clean and official. Nothing particularly underworldy about it - there are invoices for between 300K and 1M a pop for an appearance sponsored by a Ukrainian oligarch of your choosing. This has been published - you can find it in the Spiegel, New York Times and the Graunidad.

          Similarly, the relationship between said oligarchs and neo-fascist militias like the Azov batalion is well known. Money is similarly above board. Now, what is another dead body for someone with that affiliation? This has been published - you can similarly find it in the newspapers.

          I am leaving the relationship between the political orientation of "that person" and the money trail as an "exercise to the reader". This will not be published. The journalists value their lives. The ones that do not tend to have strange ECU malfunctions in their cars and crash at 200mph into a tree.

  4. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    Is this a story?

    There's no actual credit to this story or source of it's 'news' so I have read it with a full bucket du sale.

    Trend Micro are quoted as 'the APT28 crew have also targeted ...' but the article specifically does not state "Tend Micro report that ..." or similar accreditation in relation to the first paragraph.

    Is it not possible that this is a "Je suis paniking. J'ai le possibilite de losing to Le Pen <spit!>. Je must get mon media connections substantiale to releaser les stories horrible about les Ruskies nastyeux hacking moi."? (Ludicrous French accent optional!)

    Bets on the next story being 'Le Pen was responsible" (available from dodgystories.fr and other good fake news outlets...)?

  5. Phukov Andigh Bronze badge

    I feel old!

    wasn't long ago that Blaming The Russians For Everything was a right wing hobby.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I feel old!

      We've just gone in a circle! Idiots of either of the two "and only" US political parties look to place blame on others when their ideas come to naught. It's that you've noticed that the conservatives, aka the GrabOurPussies party, have gone from seeing a "commie" behind every corner to welcoming Russia directly hacking targets in our nation, providing they do it "to the other guy." Either way you slice it, it's ignorant crooks cheering foreign crooks doing more crimes. The only new thing is the ignorant messages from the "powers that be" claiming there were no crimes, or other diversionary words to mask their true meaning; "it's okay for Russia to attack my enemy, surely they are our friends now and will never do that to me?" This can only end in tears and popcorn. And I have nothing but popcorn.

  6. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Surely y'all can see the problem that is defeating you and the system. It is perfectly clear.

    It is all too obvious, and quite the abiding scandal too, that what passes for intelligence shared in sensational and provocative media stories today, is not intelligent at all, and it also appears to be the sad and mad case, and an even bigger scandal and fabulous opportunity for all kinds of exploitation, that supposed national and international security intelligence services, much touted and lauded as being silently on guard and fully engaged in protecting critical national infrastructure and international interests, have nothing better to offer anyone, including themselves.

    And if one surely expects Secret Intelligence Services to be providing all answers to problems and ensuring that they be implemented and monitored to take care of any and all unintended consequences or misunderestimations, do the sorry tales presented in main streaming media confirm all that was said before in the preceding paragraph.

    WTF are they all doing in the likes of a Cheltenham doughnut .... apart from just toeing the line and following orders leading to nowhere with nothing of any great future importance to present and drag the past into a Brave New Orderly World Order with Advanced IntelAIgent Machines on Remote Command and Virtualised Control Missions ......... Heavenly Quests.:-)

  7. Mahhn

    keep it up

    "if" they are exposing corruption, please keep it up, maybe all the political crooks will start ratting on each other, and we can get rid of more of them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: keep it up

      Russia? The same scumbag nation that happily shoots down commercial aircraft, then denies it? That Russia? A massively corrupt nation, one that shits on it's own people daily, is not a source for "exposing corruption." At best, on their very very best day, it's just a criminal trying to point the finger, secretly, at someone else in hopes of creating a scandal. Why are they perfectly hidden from view of the real world? Why not have ATP69 and FatDrunkBear come out and start a news service and show the world all the ills there are to show? Let me tell you why, because these are criminal organizations. Nothing more. They are not news services, and whatever they produce is stolen data and suspect to forgery. And, as you'll notice, it's only one-sided. They might release info from both sides, but that would be fair. Wouldn't it?

      So, if you cheer for these kind of occurrences, why not just post your passwords and bank details? Surely, you are not corrupt yourself, and you can risk exposing your true self so we can all judge you, or steal from you since you are okay with that too... let me tell you in a different way that you might understand, you are a fucking moron, man.

      Look, my own nation is run by crooks and idiots and conspiracy douchebags. Nothing short of destroying the "two parties" will rid us of the plutocracy. Openly thanking scumbags like FartBear and ATP420 is not on my to do list. Those guys are just douchebags breaking windows in the e-world. They create nothing. You can safely ignore them. And if you don't, you are part of a problem of self-interested assholes who are of the same ilk; nothing people. People just breathing air, and eating food, and doing little else of value. Those are your people.

  8. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    So Putin want Le Penn to win?

    Ah the love absolute dictators have for each other.

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