Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyber attack broke into the email accounts of some of America's most prominent federal prosecutors, sparking fears they may have stolen sensitive information pertaining to investigations into President Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Justice Department revealed the alarming information on Friday, with 27 U.S. Attorney offices across the country having one or more of their email accounts compromised during the hacking campaign, said to have run between May and December 2020.
A department spokesman said 80 percent of Microsoft email accounts used by employees in the four U.S. Attorney offices in New York were breached.
That included offices for the Southern District of New York, which handles some of the most prominent criminal cases in the country.
Federal prosecutors in that district are purportedly investigating Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee to see whether it misspent $107 million in donations.
The Southern District of New York is additionally investigating Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine. Federal investigators raided his Manhattan home in relation to the case back in April.
The Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyber attack broke into the email accounts of some of America's most prominent federal prosecutors, sparking fears they may have stolen sensitive information pertaining to investigations into President Trump and his associates. Trump and Putin are pictured together in 2018
It is unclear how long they had been probing Giuliani's affairs for prior to that bust, and whether hackers may have been able to access documents about the former New York mayor while accessing the email accounts last year.
The same district also launched a probe into Trump's 2017 inaugural committee into huge payments made to the Trump International Hotel while preparing for the former president to take power.
Trump's ex-fixer Michael Cohen claimed the Southern District was running a separate probe into the then-president in 2019, but did not offer any further detail.
Trump - who also faces a Manhattan District Attorney and New York Attorney General's investigation - has not been charged with any crime, and denies wrongdoing.
Its prosecutors are also probing Ghislaine Maxwell over her alleged grooming and sexual abuse of underage girls with pedophile ex Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell was arrested and charged in June 2020, during the timeframe the alleged hack is said to have taken place.
Bruce Green, a professor at Fordham Law School and a former prosecutor in the Southern District, said the cyber attack could have serious political ramifications if hackers obtained information sensitive to the Trump investigations.
'New York is the financial center of the world and those districts are particularly well known for investigating and prosecuting white-collar crimes and other cases, including investigating people close to the former president,' Green told The Associated Press.
The Southern District of New York is additionally investigating Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine. Federal investigators raided his Manhattan home in relation to the case back in April
The Southern District of New York is also currently prosecuting a case against Ghislaine Maxwell - the alleged madam of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
'It's potentially very serious,' Gil Soffer, a former federal prosecutor, told the BBC. He said prosecutors' emails often contain 'very sensitive and very secret information'.
The Justice Department said all victims had been notified and it is working to mitigate 'operational, security and privacy risks' caused by the hack.
They did not provide additional detail about what kind of information was taken and what impact such a hack may have on ongoing cases.
The Justice Department has confirmed that Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign also broke into the email accounts of some of America's most prominent federal prosecutors. AG Merrick Garland is pictured
The DOJ believes the accounts were compromised from May 7 to December 27, 2020 as part of Russia's SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign. That hack infiltrated dozens of private-sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies
The DOJ believes the accounts were compromised from May 7 to December 27, 2020 as part of Russia's SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign.
That hack infiltrated dozens of private-sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies.
The Biden administration in April announced sanctions, including the expulsion of Russian diplomats, in response to the SolarWinds hack and Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Russia has denied wrongdoing.
Jennifer Rodgers, a lecturer at Columbia Law School, said office emails frequently contained all sorts of sensitive information, including case strategy discussions and names of confidential informants, when she was a federal prosecutor in New York.
'I don't remember ever having someone bring me a document instead of emailing it to me because of security concerns,' she said, noting exceptions for classified materials.
Hackers may have gained access to whistleblower reports and the names of secret informants.
Members of Congress have expressed frustration with the Biden administration for not sharing more information about the impact of the SolarWinds campaign.
The Associated Press previously reported that SolarWinds hackers had gained access to email accounts belonging to the then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and members of the department´s cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats from foreign countries.
The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts confirmed in January that it was also breached, giving the SolarWinds hackers another entry point to steal confidential information like trade secrets, espionage targets, whistleblower reports and arrest warrants.
Email accounts for prosecutors at the Southern District of New York we hacked. The office is currently prosecuting the case against Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
No comments:
Post a Comment