In the exploration of the state Department went hackers
On Friday it became known about hacking the mailbox of a high-ranking employee of US state Department, responsible for intelligence activities against Russia. Reported the incident to the publication Foreign Policy has not led the name of the diplomat has not specified, about what there is a speech to 2 thousand leaked emails. However, Kommersant found out that the victim of a hacker attack has become a specialist on Russian domestic politics, Robert Otto, and examine the contents of his correspondence.
Hacking private mail box a high-ranking employee of US state Department on Friday evening told the American publication Foreign Policy. The article does not mentioned the name of the victim of hackers, but it was specified that this person works in the Bureau of intelligence and research Department of state responsible for Russia. An informed source said that the expert considered “the best specialist of the US administration for Russia” and that “he more than anyone is aware that there (in Russia.— “B”) happens.”
That email spy has been hacked, reporters learned from the letter received from the attacker under the pseudonym of Johnnie Walker. The letter was a link to the archive containing the correspondence of this official for the past two years. The article States that he corresponded with “the CIA and other intelligence agencies, correspondents known to the media, non-governmental organizations and international funds.”
From the article Foreign Policy should be that the hacking could be Russian hackers. One proof of this version, according to the authors, is the fact that for the first time about the contents of the correspondence have informed a “dubious Crimean site”, a former employee which States: this resource is sponsored by the Russian intelligence services (his name is not given).
The correspondent of “Kommersant” has spent several hours to find this website or any other information about this burglary in the Russian segment of the Internet, but to no avail. But finding the list of employees of the Bureau of intelligence and research of the state Department (their names are in the telephone directory on the Agency’s website) and “punching” them one after the other, “Kommersant” managed to find the link to the archive.
She was attached to the letter in English, published by someone on July 10 at the resource Pastebin (used to publish text fragments).
The name of the victim of hackers — Robert Otto. His position — the head of Russia’s domestic policy Department for Russia and Eurasia Bureau of intelligence and research of the U.S. Department of state. The network got a letter from his personal Inbox (on the gmail server), most of them devoted to the work.
A significant portion of the correspondence consists of articles from Russian publications that Robert Otto shares with his colleagues and friends, or those who send him.
Most often we are talking about references to Novaya Gazeta, The New Times, “Elephant”, “Vedomosti”, RBC, “Kommersant”, “echo of Moscow”, Meduza, The Insider. Often there are links to analytical articles Moscow Carnegie center.
If you look at the content articles are forwarded, we can conclude that Robert Otto and his partners in correspondence interested in various aspects of Russian domestic politics. For example, the probability of early elections in Russia, the prospects of the protests of truckers, privatization of Bashneft and the potential of the onf.
Robert Otto wondered what famous political and public figures write in social networks. In his letters there are references to tweets the head of the Center for strategic research (CSR) Alexei Kudrin, chief editor of “Echo of Moscow” Alexei Venediktov and head of the MIA “Russia today” Margarita Simonyan. It also draws attention to the page in “Vkontakte” the ex-Minister of defence self-proclaimed Donetsk national Republic Igor strelkov-Girkin and posts on Facebook expert of MGIMO Valery Solovey.
Many letters dedicated to the reshuffle in the Russian government structures and how influential is a particular statesmen. So, one of them is attached seven-page profile on the head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation Anton Vaino (assembled from public sources). In another thread discussing who sits where at the meetings of the security Council of the Russian Federation and what it might mean. Several letters dedicated to the movement Vyacheslav Volodin from the presidential administration to the Duma. In another group of letters hypotheses that can be contained in those or other secret decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, in particular, in which of them we are talking about the appointment of Sergei Korolev as head of the economic security Service of FSB of the Russian Federation. In this case, Vladimir Putin, Robert Otto and his correspondence often referred to simply as “PU”.
The state Department has not yet confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the letters. It is also unknown whether it was a case of hacking the unit or was part of a series of cyber attacks.
Elena Chernenko