Gawker posts anti-Trump playbook; was it stolen from DNC?

There’s never any lack of lust for fame in the hacking world.

The alleged hacker, going by the name Guccifer 2.0, released the opposition research report and a list of Democratic donors on a website. The post pointed to the specific malware and tactics pointing to the Russian groups known as Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear.

Security analysts following the release pointed to Guccifer 2.0’s leak as evidence that Crowdstrike had misidentified the DNC hacker or hackers and badly overestimated their skills and resources. “But in fact, it was easy, very easy”. Efforts to reach the hacker were unsuccessful.

Among the documents posted by “Guccifer 2.0” on Wednesday was what appears to be a 231-page opposition research document on the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee.

“CrowdStrike stands fully by its analysis and findings identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016”.

Spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, told Reuters that possibility that that the Russian government is involved has been completely ruled out.

The original Guccifer is Marcel Lazar Lehel of Romania. He has been extradited to the US, where he awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to identity theft and unauthorized access to protected computers.

Guccifer 2.0 said he or she had passed the rest of the documents to WikiLeaks, who “will publish them soon”. “But he certainly wasn’t the last”, the hacker said.

Donald Trump responded immediately, hinting that the Democrats had hacked their own server in order to get the dirt out to the public.

The purported DNC document, titled “Donald Trump Report”, includes “top narratives” on Trump, a personal life history of the candidate, his positions on a number of issues, business dealings and controversial statements on women, the press and minorities. But it’s hardly the complete research brief that the organization is working on to thwart the presumptive GOP nominee from becoming president. The date on the document is December 19, 2015.

DNC and CrowdStrike teams “moved as quickly as possible to kick out the intruders and secure our network”, she said.

The anonymous individual also told Gawker that among the stolen files was a list of DNC donors. According to one screenshot, actor Morgan Freeman of Los Angeles donated $1 million, and film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg $3 million.

“Use specific hits to muddy the waters around ethics, transparency, and campaign finance attacks on HRC”, the document continued.

One, code-named Cozy Bear, broke into the DNC last summer and had been monitoring the committee’s emails and chats. This is not unusual.

“Although it’s a bit ridiculous sounding I also could see a scenario where the Russian intelligence agents feel that this is an opportunity to shape the debate some”, said Robert Lee, founder and CEO of Dragos Security and a former cyber warfare operations officer for the US Air Force.

However, the posting by Guccifer 2.0 implied the attack was carried out by one person.