The New York Times suggested that the two think tanks were targeted because they were former supporters of President Trump but were now foes who had called for more sanctions to be imposed on Russia.<doc-sep>Software maker Microsoft says that hackers linked to Russia’s government tried to launch computer attacks on United States websites. The websites belonged to the U.S. Senate and to some conservative American research groups known as think tanks. Microsoft warned that Russia is expanding its attacks before U.S. congressional elections in November. The world’s biggest software company said late on Monday that last week it took control of six web domains that hackers had created to look like websites belonging to the Senate and the think tanks. Users who visited the false websites were asked to enter information to log in to them. Microsoft’s action is its latest effort to stop what it says are Russian government hacking attempts. The company said it has shut down 84 false websites in 12 court-approved actions over the past two years. The attacks are believed to have come from APT28, a group under the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. It is believed to be the same group that interfered with the 2016 U.S. election. Microsoft did not blame the group directly, but named them in their statement. Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote about the hacking incident in a blog post. He said he was concerned that the hacking attempts are a “security risk” to American political parties as they near the 2018 election. Microsoft said it had no evidence that the hackers had been able to use any of the login information before the sites were removed from the web. This kind of attack is known as “spear fishing.” Spear fishing describes an operation in which hackers trick people into entering their username and password into a false site in order to steal their login information. Gaining login information would permit the hackers to get emails, contact lists and other information of important individuals. Reuters news service reported that Russia rejected the Microsoft accusations and said there was no evidence to support them. “We don’t know what hackers they are talking about,” Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Who exactly are they talking about?” He added that Microsoft did not show any real evidence to support their accusations. Russia has denied that it used hackers to effect U.S. elections and political opinion. The targets, Microsoft said, included the International Republican Institute. Its Republican members include Senator John McCain of Arizona. The Hudson Institute, another target, has held discussions on cyber security, Microsoft noted. It also explored the rise of government corruption and theft in Russia, and has been critical of the Russian government. Other false domains were used to look like real websites used by the U.S. Senate and Microsoft’s Office software, the company said. Microsoft’s report came as tensions between Russia and the U.S have grown. In July, a U.S. federal grand jury charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking into the computer networks of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in 2016. I’m Susan Shand. Reuters and the Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted the story for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story hacker – n. person who secretly gets access to a computer system in order to get information, cause damage, etc.<doc-sep>It shut down sites created by hackers believed to have ties to Moscow. Microsoft has thwarted newly attempted cyberattacks by Russian hackers targeting U.S. political campaigns before the midterm elections, the company alleged Monday. The tech behemoth’s Digital Crimes Unit acted on a court order last week, shutting down six fake internet domains operated by hackers associated with the Russian government, the Redmond, Washington-company said in a blog post late Monday. “Attackers want their attacks to look as realistic as possible and they therefore create websites and URLs that look like sites their targeted victims would expect to receive email from or visit. The sites involved in last week’s order fit this description,” Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote. “We’re concerned that these and other attempts pose security threats to a broadening array of groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections.” The six domains are among the 84 fake websites Microsoft has shuttered in the past two years associated with a group of hackers that goes by the name Strontium, Fancy Bear and/or APT28, which is associated with the Russian government, the company said. The news came less than a month after Microsoft disclosed failed phishing attacks targeting three undisclosed candidates in this year's midterm elections. It did not say who it believed was behind those attacks. The fake websites in the most recent attempts appeared to mimic domains associated with the conservative nonprofits Hudson Institute and International Republican Institute. The latter has six Republican senators and at least one leading senatorial candidate on its board, according to Microsoft. The other domains seemed to reference the U.S. Senate but they were not specific to any particular offices, according to the Microsoft president. “Despite last week’s steps, we are concerned by the continued activity targeting these and other sites and directed toward elected officials, politicians, political groups and think tanks across the political spectrum in the United States,” Smith said. “Taken together, this pattern mirrors the type of activity we saw prior to the 2016 election in the United States and the 2017 election in France.” Jan Surotchak, Europe regional director for the International Republican Institute, blamed the Russian Federation. Russia has repeatedly denied such accusations. “Moscow is actively trying to sway public opinion throughout Europe as a way to expand its military and political clout,” Surotchak said in a statement Tuesday morning. “It’s not just in places like eastern Ukraine. It’s in places we once believed were firmly in the democratic camp, such as Visegrad, the Baltic States, and much of the Balkans. IRI is one of the few organizations in a position to quickly and effectively counteract this misinformation.” The Hudson Institute did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Microsoft said it was in contact with both organizations after the apparent hacking attempts. Microsoft said there was no evidence to suggest that the fake “domains were used in any successful attacks.” Microsoft also announced a new initiative, AccountGuard, to help political candidates combat hacking attempts. The added protection is free for all political candidates, campaign offices, think tanks and political organizations which “we now believe are under attack,” according to Microsoft.<doc-sep>(CNN) — Parts of an operation linked to Russian military intelligence targeting the US Senate and conservative think tanks that advocated for tougher policies against Russia were thwarted last week, Microsoft announced early Tuesday. The disclosure, coming less than three months ahead of the 2018 midterms, demonstrates new ways in which Russia is attempting to destabilize US institutions. The news also places additional pressure on President Donald Trump to take action, even though he downplayed Russia’s involvement as recently as Monday. In its announcement, Microsoft said it executed a court order giving it control of six websites created by a group known as Fancy Bear. The group was behind the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee and directed by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit, according to cybersecurity firms. The websites could have been used to launch cyberattacks on candidates and other political groups ahead of November’s elections, the company said. Microsoft said the domains were “associated with the Russian government and known as Strontium, or alternatively Fancy Bear or APT28.” The company said it has no evidence that the domains were used in successful attacks but that it was working with the potential target organizations. Microsoft argued in court that the domains were posing as some of its company’s services. “Attackers want their attacks to look as realistic as possible and they therefore create websites and URLs that look like sites their targeted victims would expect to receive email from or visit,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog posted to the company’s website on Monday night. Although the websites could be used to trick members of the Senate and think tanks, they also could have been used to dupe other people or entities that interact with them. Think tanks have criticized Russia 01:24 - Source: CNN Microsoft stops Kremlin-based hackers Hackers could have used the domains to send emails to Senate staffers or people working for the Hudson Institute or the International Republican Institute in an attempt to trick them into handing over information, like their passwords. This form of attack, known as spearphishing, was successfully used to target Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta in 2016. Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill’s staff was similarly targeted by a Russian group last year. McCaskill has said the attempt was unsuccessful, and Microsoft took control of the domain that targeted her staff via a court order in Virginia earlier this year. Among the websites for which a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia granted Microsoft control were those with domain names designed to resemble sites used by congressional staff. They include “senate.group” and “adfs-senate.email.” Other domains were designed to look like they were related to the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, and the International Republican Institute, whose board includes six serving senators, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Gen. H.R. McMaster. Both think tanks have been critical of Russia. The Hudson Institute runs the Kleptocracy Initiative, which has an advisory council with several Russia experts and focuses on revealing how “financial secrecy fuels globalized corruption and threats to democracy” and frequently scrutinizes on the Kremlin. The International Republican Institute has been working to promote democracy since the 1980s and receives funding through the US State Department, US Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy. IRI has also been critical of Russia, and the Russian Federation labeled the group an “undesirable organization” in 2016. The institute’s board of directors includes several Republicans in Congress. Arizona Sen. John McCain led the board earlier this year and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan took over for McCain. Both have been critical of Trump. “This apparent spearphishing attempt against the International Republican Institute and other organizations is consistent with the campaign of meddling that the Kremlin has waged against organizations that support democracy and human rights,” Daniel Twining, IRI’s president, said in a statement Tuesday morning. “It is clearly designed to sow confusion, conflict and fear among those who criticize (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) authoritarian regime.” Kremlin denies involvement 01:37 - Source: CNN 5 ways the US can stop hackers The Kremlin on Tuesday denied any knowledge of attempts to interfere in US elections. “Our reaction has already become traditional: we don’t know which hackers they are talking about, we don’t know what is meant about the impact on elections,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a CNN question. “From the US, we hear that there was not any meddling in the elections. Whom exactly they are talking about, what is the proof, and on what grounds are they reaching such conclusions?” He added, “We don’t understand, and there is no information, so we treat such allegations accordingly.” In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Trump – who has openly and repeatedly questioned US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the goal of harming Hillary Clinton’s campaign to aid his bid – blamed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the matter for undermining his efforts to improve relations with Moscow. Mueller’s investigation has “played right into the Russians – if it was Russia – they played right into the Russians’ hands,” the President said. But the President’s own Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, delivered a speech at the Hudson Institute last month, in which he called Russia “the most aggressive foreign actor” participating in efforts to undermine American democracy. Also last month, the Justice Department announced indictments against 12 members of the GRU, as part of Mueller’s investigation, for allegedly disseminating information it had stolen from the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2016. The indictment laid bare how two units of the GRU had been allegedly responsible for the intrusions, putting names to a group that had only been known under monikers like Fancy Bear and APT28. Recent attacks The news comes less than a week after it emerged that two Democratic congressional primary candidates were hacked earlier this year.<doc-sep>
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said that hackers linked to Russia’s government sought to launch cyber attacks on U.S. political groups, warning that Moscow is broadening attacks ahead of November’s congressional elections. The world’s biggest software company said late on Monday that it last week took control of six web domains that hackers had created to mimic websites belonging to the U.S. Senate, two conservative think tanks and Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service. Hackers use fake sites in “phishing” schemes to trick users into providing login details for accessing computer networks and confidential systems such as email accounts. The domain takedowns represent Microsoft’s latest effort to thwart what it says are hacking attempts by a group known as “Fancy Bear,” or APT28, that is linked to the Russian government. The company said it has shut down 84 fake websites in 12 court-approved actions over the past two years. “We’re concerned that these and other attempts pose security threats to a broadening array of groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post. Microsoft said it had no evidence the hackers succeeded in compromising any user credentials or stole any data. Russian government officials rejected the Microsoft allegations and said there was no evidence to support them. “We don’t know what hackers they are talking about,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It is regrettable that a large international company, which has been working in the Russian market for a long time, quite actively and successfully has to take part in a witch-hunt that has engulfed Washington,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry later said in a statement. A Russian flag is seen on a laptop screen in front of a computer screen displaying cyber code. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration Moscow has repeatedly dismissed allegations that it has used hackers to influence U.S. elections and political opinion. The targeted think tanks included the International Republican Institute, whose board members include Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, and the Hudson Institute, according to Microsoft. The International Republican Institute confirmed in a statement on its website that it had been targeted. “This latest attempt is consistent with the campaign of meddling that the Kremlin has waged against organizations that support democracy and human rights. It is clearly designed to sow confusion, conflict and fear among those who criticize Mr. Putin’s authoritarian regime,” Institute President Daniel Twining said in the statement. Representatives with the Hudson Institute could not be reached for comment. “RUN-OF-THE MILL SPYING” Microsoft’s report came amid increasing tensions between Moscow and Washington over allegations of election-meddling. A U.S. federal grand jury indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers in July on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer networks in an attempt to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and some U.S. officials have said Moscow could try to interfere with the U.S. midterm elections in November. Three U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the hacking into traditional Republican policy organizations is neither new nor confined to Russia. Others including China and Iran, have attempted to penetrate the websites and communications of political and other groups across what one of the officials described as “the entire political spectrum from far left to far right.” Several cybersecurity firms said they had uncovered no evidence to link the sites uncovered by Microsoft to election interference, saying that APT28 and other foreign hacking groups had targeted political U.S. political groups for a decade. “This activity today looks like run-of-the-mill spying. So far nothing special,” said Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Four of the six malicious domain names suggest they run legitimate Microsoft programs, including Active Directory software for logging into websites, Sharepoint collaboration tools and Office 365 OneDrive cloud storage. Microsoft said it would offer enhanced security to U.S. political parties, candidates, and campaigns that use its Office 365 software. The new service, AccountGuard, will secure work and personal accounts of Microsoft Office 365, Outlook.com and Hotmail. The company said it will alert organizations when a staff member’s account has been compromised by hackers working for a foreign government.