Security firm determines Russian hackers breached Podesta's account in phishing scam

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published 20 October 2016

Independent cybersecurity firm SecureWorks has confirmed that Russian hackers broke into Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's Gmail account after he fell for a phishing scam, a report by Motherboard published Thursday revealed. Politico reported Podesta "unwittingly gave hackers access to his account by clicking a Bitly link that redirected him to a fake Google login page, where he entered his credentials."

SecureWorks determined Podesta was likely hacked by the same group, known as Fancy Bear, that is thought to be behind the recent breaches of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Fancy Bear is believed to be connected to Russia's military intelligence agency, and the Bitly account is just the latest piece of evidence linking the hacks to the Kremlin.

The hacks of Podesta's email, former Secretary of State Colin Powell's email, and other groups "were done using the same tool: malicious short URLS hidden in fake Gmail messages. And those URLs ... were created with a Bitly account linked to a domain under the control of Fancy Bear," Motherboard explained. Read their full report here.