Just as President Obama promised, the U.S. sanctioned Russia following the election hacks.
President Obama fired back against Russia over election hacking. On Thursday afternoon, Obama announced that the U.S. will respond against Russia following “repeated private and public warnings” issued to the Russian government.
Via an executive order, President Obama outlined a plan for additional authority against cyber activity threatening the democratic process. With this new authority, President Obama sanctioned nine groups including two Russian intelligence services, individual officers and companies that “provided material support” to Russian intelligence officials.
President Obama also explained the shutdown of two Russian compounds in Maryland and in New York, which were being used by Russian officials for intelligence-related purposes.
Russian Malicious Cyber Activity Report
In addition, the FBI and DHS issued a report to the public reviewing the Russia election hacking. The joint analysis report explains that there were to cyber attacks called Advanced Persistent Threat 28 (APT28) and Advanced Persistent Threat 29 (APT29).
APT29 cyber threat first took place in the summer of 2015 and hacked a U.S. political party. Then, APT28 occurred in the spring of 2016. It is important to note that the report does not reveal which political party was compromised. Also, the report goes on to explain that political parties were not the only organizations targeted but, universities and corporations were also involved. Via APT29 hackers were able to gain email access to several government officials to “compromise” a U.S. political party.
The report goes on to reveal how hackers gained access. Hackers used spear phishing email attacks. Spear phishing cyber attacks is a hacking scheme that works by targeting someone by pretending to be a business or individual they would know.
The report also included directions and instructions on how to prevent future malicious cyber attacks.
Towards the end of the statement, President Obama also made sure to explain that the U.S. is also responding in ways that will not be revealed to the public.
Hackers are getting more advanced. Last week, it was revealed that Russian hackers were able to steal millions per day from video advertisers through program called “Methbot”. But, government agencies are not the only groups getting targeted, Yahoo!, Britney Spears, Netflix and adult websites have all become victims of hackers just in the last few weeks.