Threat Management, Threat Management, Threat Intelligence

Misstep reveals Guccifer 2.0 as Russian GRU operative

Guccifer 2.0 apparently forgot to activate a virtual private network during communications, allowing U.S. investigators to identify the hacker as an intelligence agent at Russia's GRU.

They were able to peg the hacker from his Moscow IP address, which appeared in a U.S. social media company's logs, according to a report from the Daily Beast. 

Guccifer 2.0 emerged in 2016 as a counterpoint to the narrative that Russia had hacked the Democrat National Committee (DNC), claiming to be the “lone hacker” behind the attack. President Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed to have communicated directly on Twitter with the self-proclaimed Romanian hacktivist. 

Stone's seemingly prior knowledge that the emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta would be leaked landed him before the House Intelligence Committee last September where he refused to answer questions around his interactions with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who released the emails in a steady drip throughout the 2016 presidential campaign.

At the time, Stone claimed in a pre-hearing statement that he had “no involvement in the alleged activities that are within the publicly stated scope of this committee's investigation -- collusion with the Russian state to affect the outcome of the 2016 election."

The report said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has taken the reins in the Guccifer 2.0 investigation.

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