Tue. 8:54 a.m.: Here we go again – Kremlin dismisses reports of new hacking attacks
By The Associated Press
The Kremlin this morning is dismissing new reports that Russia is targeting U.S. political groups through cyberattacks ahead of midterm elections.
Microsoft said this morning that it’s uncovered new intrusions by Russian government-linked hackers on U.S. political groups. It said one group created fake Internet domains that appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute. Three other fake domains were designed to look as if they belonged to the U.S. Senate.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov is denying the allegations and says that Microsoft’s statement lacks detail and it wasn’t clear “who the hackers in question are” and how they could distort the U.S. electoral system.
Microsoft says there is no evidence that the hackers were successful.
The revelation came just weeks after a similar discovery by Microsoft led Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who is running for re-election, to divulge that Russian hackers tried to infiltrate her Senate computer network, but were unsuccessful.
The hacking attempts mirror similar Russian attacks ahead of the 2016 election, which U.S. intelligence officials claimed were focused on helping to elect Republican Donald Trump to the presidency by hurting his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
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