Russia unsuccessfully tried to hack Sen. Claire McCaskill's office

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is the first known target of Russian interference in the 2018 midterm election, The Daily Beast reports.

In order to steal email passwords, Russia's GRU intelligence agency — the same agency behind the 2016 election cyber attacks — sent emails to Senate targets in August 2017, claiming their Microsoft Exchange password had expired, and they needed to make a new one, The Daily Beast says. Anyone who clicked on the link was brought to a replica of the U.S. Senate's Active Directory Federation Services login, used for email and other services.

The Daily Beast was able to see a snapshot of the different targets who tried to change their passwords, and saw the email of one of McCaskill's policy aides. McCaskill said in a statement the attempt to steal the password was unsuccessful, and it was "outrageous that they think they can get away with this." Russian President Vladimir Putin is "a thug and a bully," she added, and "I will not be intimidated." McCaskill is considered one of the Senate's most vulnerable Democrats, as Missouri went for President Trump in the 2016 election.

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