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Evidence suggests that a Russian intelligence group was the source of the most recent Wikileaks intel dump, which was aimed to influence the U.S. election.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Close your eyes and imagine that a <\/strong>hacking group backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin broke into the email system of a major U.S.<\/span> political party. The group stole thousands of sensitive messages and then published them through an obliging third party in a way that was strategically timed to influence the United States presidential election. Now open your eyes, because that\u2019s what just\u00a0happened.<\/p>\n On Friday, Wikileaks published 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee. They reveal, among other things,thuggish infighting<\/a>, a push by a top DNC<\/span> official <\/a>to use Bernie Sanders\u2019 religious convictions against him in the South, and attempts to strong-arm<\/a> media outlets. In other words, they reveal the Washington campaign monster for what it\u00a0is.<\/p>\n But leave aside the purported content of the Wikileaks data dump (to which numerous other outlets have devoted considerable attention) and consider the source. Considerable evidence shows that the Wikileaks dump was an orchestrated act by the Russian government, working through proxies, to undermine Hillary Clinton\u2019s Presidential\u00a0campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has all the hallmarks of tradecraft. The only rationale to release such data from the Russian bulletproof host was to empower one candidate against another. The Cold War is alive and well,\u201d Tom Kellermann, the CEO<\/span> of Strategic Cyber Ventures told Defense\u00a0One.<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the timeline: On June 14, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, under contract with the DNC<\/span>, announced in a blog post that two separate Russian intelligence groups had gained access to the DNC<\/span> network. One group, FANCY<\/span> BEAR<\/span> or APT<\/span> 28, gained access in April. The other, COZY<\/span> BEAR<\/span>, (also called Cozy Duke and APT<\/span> 29) first breached the network in the summer of\u00a02015.<\/p>\n Cybersecurity company FireEye first discovered<\/a> APT<\/span> 29 in 2014 and was quick to point out a clear Kremlin connection. \u201cWe suspect the Russian government sponsors the group because of the organizations it targets and the data it steals. Additionally, APT<\/span>29 appeared to cease operations on Russian holidays, and their work hours seem to align with the UTC<\/span> +3 time zone, which contains cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg,\u201d they wrote in their report on the group. Other U.S.<\/span> officials<\/a> have said that the group looks like it has sponsorship from the Russian government due in large part to the level of sophistication behind the group\u2019s\u00a0attacks.<\/p>\n\n