The hacker — or hacker group — known as Guccifer 2.0 is claiming responsibility for the posting of the personal information of 200 Democrats online. Guccifer 2.0 claims this information was gathered by breaching the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The information was posted on the Guccifer website and among the victims listed were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer. Hoyer was contacted by the press through the number listed on the Guccifer website and it was indeed his number. Mr. Hoyer said he was unaware that such information had been stolen and leaked to the public. Nancy Pelosi on the other hand, found out quickly and was already taking measures to secure her privacy and encouraged all Democrats to do the same.
Hours after the information was posted online, an email list-serve run by the Democratic Caucus sent a notice to recipients informing them to “change passwords to all email accounts that you use” and also to “strongly consider changing your non-House email addresses if possible.”
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, whose cellphone number was revealed in the spreadsheet, said in a statement, “I have every confidence that law enforcement will get to the bottom of this, and identify the responsible parties. And when they do, I hope the Administration will disclose who is attempting to interfere with the American political process, and levy strong consequences against those responsible.”
Guccifer 2.0 has also taken responsibility for the DNC hack from earlier this year and it’s unclear what agenda the hacker(s) have. The Democratic party has blamed the Russians for the previous DNC hack so it’s not clear if this group is working with the Russians or on its own. For now it looks like it’s time for politicians to take security a little more seriously.
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[button link=”http://www.wsj.com/articles/hacker-reveals-personal-information-for-almost-200-democrats-1471048195″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Wall Street Journal[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
