US officials claim Russia hackers stole DNC’s research on Trump, Moscow denies doing so

Russian hackers have attacked the US Democratic National Committee’s computer network and gained access to the entire research the party has carried out on the rival party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, American officials say while Moscow denies such a move.

The breach was initially reported by the Washington Post, quoting committee officials and security experts in a Tuesday report.

"I completely rule out a possibility that the (Russian) government or the government bodies have been involved in this," Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told Reuters in Moscow.

Up to the last week when a computer cleanup was carried out, some hackers had had access for about a year, the officials said.

According to the report, the move was “traditional espionage, not the work of criminal hackers,” particularly because no financial, donor or personal information has been stolen.

“It’s the job of every foreign intelligence service to collect intelligence against their adversaries,” said Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike, the cyber firm tasked with tackling the breach and a former head of the FBI’s cyber division.

‘Russians wake up every day to gather intelligence’

The campaigns of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump, himself, have already been hacked by Russian spies, the report claimed.

“We’re perceived as an adversary of Russia,” Henry said. “Their job when they wake up every day is to gather intelligence against the policies, practices and strategies of the US government. There are a variety of ways. [Hacking] is one of the more valuable because it gives you a treasure trove of information.”

According to the report, since Trump is not a senior politician, foreign agencies are “playing catch-up.”

“The purpose of such intelligence gathering is to understand the target’s proclivities,” said Robert Deitz, former senior councilor to the CIA director. “Trump’s foreign investments, for example, would be relevant to understanding how he would deal with countries where he has those investments… They may provide tips for understanding his style of negotiating. In short, this sort of intelligence could be used by Russia, for example, to indicate where it can get away with foreign adventurism.”

Russia happens to be hosting an American whistleblower who shocked the world by revealing the depth of US mass espionage against American citizens as well as foreign politicians.

According to Edward Snowden, the US government surveillance methods far surpass those of an ‘Orwellian’ state, referring to George Orwell’s classic novel “1984,” which describes a society where personal privacy is continuously invaded by spy agencies.

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