A massive hack of the Democratic National Committee’s email system cost former Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz her job.
A few weeks after Wikileaks published more than 19,000 hacked emails from top Democratic Party officials, investigators have indicated the personal email accounts of more than 100 Hillary campaign officials and other organizations may have been targeting in the attack.
The New York Times reported:
The main targets appear to have been the personal email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s campaign officials and party operatives, along with a number of party organizations.Officials have acknowledged that the Russian hackers gained access to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is the fund-raising arm for House Democrats, and to the Democratic National Committee, including a D.N.C. voter analytics program used by Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign.But the hack now appears to have extended well beyond those groups, and organizations like the Democratic Governors’ Association may also have been affected, according to Democrats involved in the investigation.
Democrats are concerned another swath of emails may be released. The first batch of emails published by Wikileaks contained a thread showing what appeared to be a suggestion to use Bernie Sanders’ religion as a point of attack.
The extension of the hack’s scope beyond the D.N.C. and the House Democratic committee added a troubling new element to the case, the staff member said.American authorities remain uncertain whether the electronic break-in to the committee’s computer systems was intended as fairly routine cyberespionage or as part of an effort to manipulate the presidential election.Russian motives are still an open question, said a federal law enforcement official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.There is no evidence so far that the theft penetrated the emails of lawmakers or staff members who serve on the Intelligence Committees, two staff members said.The F.B.I. says it has no direct evidence that Mrs. Clinton’s private email server was hacked by the Russians or anyone else. But in June, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said that intruders had tried, and that any successful intruders were probably far too skilled to leave evidence of their intrusion behind. Law enforcement officials said he had the Russians in mind.Mrs. Clinton’s aides were concerned about the possibility of an outside breach after a hacker calling himself “Guccifer” got into the email account in 2013 of Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidante of Mrs. Clinton’s who often emailed her on her private server, according to new documents released Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Wikileaks is offering $20k reward for information on the mysterious death of DNC Staffer, Seth Rich.
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