Report: Same group that hacked DNC, Clinton, also attacked conservative Heritage Foundation, Trump’s principle policy advisory group
(National Sentinel) Political cyber-espionage: While the Left continues to insist that only Democrats were “hacked” during the 2016 election cycle, a report published Tuesday says that a conservative organization that served as a principle policy advisor to then-GOP nominee Donald J. Trump was hacked by the same group that got access to computer files at the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta.
The Daily Caller reported exclusively:
The influential nonprofit worked closely with the Trump transition team both before and after the election, and was dubbed “Donald Trump’s think tank” by CNN. The Trump campaign relied on Heritage’s research for policy ideas, a fact that the nonprofit proudly promoted on its website.
Heritage alerted employees to the phishing attempts in an email just two weeks before the election, adding that the FBI had contacted Heritage about the phishing attempts.
“The same threat groups that have been releasing information about the DNC, Hillary Clinton, and recently John Podesta have been targeting specific people within Heritage via phishing campaigns,” the email, dated Oct. 24, 2016, said. “Our security monitoring tools and services show no signs of an active compromise. However, we were contacted by the FBI agent-in-charge regarding emails sent to Heritage staff in August and September.”
Former Heritage chief and U.S. senator, Jim DeMint, confirmed that indeed the organization’s systems were attacked but that there was no breach of data that he knows of. But he added that Heritage had been hacked in the past, by Chinese hackers.
The DC reported further:
That the DNC hackers apparently targeted the Heritage Foundation in August and September of 2016 is consistent with the intelligence community’s findings that the hackers’ original goal was to disrupt and undermine American civic institutions, before shifting their focus to helping Trump. Russia was believed to have later shifted tactics to undermining American electoral institutions once they believed Trump no longer had a chance at winning.
It should be noted that despite the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies have said they are certain Russian hackers were behind the DNC and Podesta hacks and other alleged attacks, there are reports out there disputing that claim. In addition, as former FBI Director James Comey testified in February that Russian hackers attempted to breach Republican National Committee computers too but only gained “limited” access to old computer systems that were “no longer in use.”
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