Russia

The DNC Hacker Was a Russian Intelligence Officer

Written by SK Ashby

The identity of the infamous hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 has remained something of a mystery over the past two years. We knew they operated on behalf of Russian intelligence, but there had been some vague indications that the hacker or hackers, whether it was one person or a group, operated out of Ukraine which the Russians often do to maintain plausible deniability.

The Daily Beast reported last night that Gufficer 2.0, the hacker responsible for penetrating the Democratic party, has been positively identified by federal authorities and special prosecutor Robert Mueller as a Russian intelligence officer.

Authorities were reportedly able to identify him because he forgot to mask his address with a virtual private network (VPN) when he logged on to Twitter one day.

[On] one occasion, The Daily Beast has learned, Guccifer failed to activate the VPN client before logging on. As a result, he left a real, Moscow-based Internet Protocol address in the server logs of an American social media company, according to a source familiar with the government’s Guccifer investigation. Twitter and WordPress were Guccifer 2.0’s favored outlets. Neither company would comment for this story, and Guccifer did not respond to a direct message on Twitter.

Working off the IP address, U.S. investigators identified Guccifer 2.0 as a particular GRU officer working out of the agency’s headquarters on Grizodubovoy Street in Moscow.

Guccifer's real name has not been revealed, but the Daily Beast reports that he was not among those recently indicted by Robert Mueller.

That seemingly suggests that he hasn't been identified because they're still building a case against him and/or his possible collaborators.

We know that Trump's longtime henchmen Roger Stone and Wikileaks embassy-dweller Julian Assange were both in contact with Gufficer who was, in fact, a Russia intelligence officer. That means Russian intelligence directly handed the DNC emails over to Assange and Wikileaks. It's also possible the Trump campaign knew it was coming by way of Roger Stone.

This seems like something the House Intelligence Committee would be interested in if, you know, they actually cared. House Republicans shut down their investigation without interviewing dozens of witnesses.

House Democrats can reopen the investigation if they win in November.