Compliance Management, Privacy, Threat Management

Ukranian Cyber Hunta claim Putin aide hack, release incriminating emails

Yet another Russian hack has led to the release of incriminating emails and other documents – but this time, an aide in President Vladmir Putin's office was the victim and the data dump came from a Ukrainian group called Cyber Hunta.

"This is a serious hack," NBC News cited Maks Czuperski, head of the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council (DFRL), as saying.

Emails from the office of longtime Putin aide Vladislav Surkov, some of which were published by the DFRL, show a clear and active relationship between Russia and separatists in the Ukraine.

While NBC reported that Surkov doesn't use email, the DFRL said hackers apparently downloaded Outlook accounts of some of his assistants. The organization said it was confident that the missives are genuine.

“Every message in the .PST database released by “Cyber Hunta” — 2,337 in total — contains the same type of header information,” DFRL wrote, noting “we can verify nearly every bit of information in Surkov's inbox.”

The hack comes after a series of intrusions into organizations and the emails of people associated with the Democratic party that have prompted lawmakers and even the White House to rebuke Russia for trying to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. Russia has denied the claims.

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