Russians Hacking DNC Computers

The Washington Post is reporting that Russian hackers penetrated the network of the Democratic National Committee and stole opposition research on Donald Trump. The evidence is from CrowdStrike:

The firm identified two separate hacker groups, both working for the Russian government, that had infiltrated the network, said Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike co-founder and chief technology officer. The firm had analyzed other breaches by both groups over the last two years.

One group, which CrowdStrike had dubbed Cozy Bear, had gained access last summer and was monitoring the DNC's email and chat communications, Alperovitch said.

The other, which the firm had named Fancy Bear, broke into the network in late April and targeted the opposition research files. It was this breach that set off the alarm. The hackers stole two files, Henry said. And they had access to the computers of the entire research staff -- an average of about several dozen on any given day.

This seems like standard political espionage to me. We certainly don't want it to happen, but we shouldn't be surprised when it does.

Slashdot thread.

EDITED TO ADD (6/16): From the Washington Post article, the Republicans were also hacked:

The intrusion into the DNC was one of several targeting American political organizations. The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some Republican political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available.

EDITED TO ADD (6/16): These leaks might be from this hack, or from another unrelated hack. They don't seem to be related to the Russian government at all.

EDITED TO ADD (6/12): Another view.