Tag: GRU

Manafort suspected of sharing polling data with associate linked to Russian intelligence

A major court filing error led to secret details of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s criminal case leaking out into the public sphere on Tuesday.

Defense attorneys filed a response contesting special counsel Robert Mueller’s allegations that Manafort lied to federal investigators on a variety of subjects, in breach of his plea agreement. But while portions of the filing were supposed to be redacted and shielded from the public, court watchers were able to view the filing in its entirety by copying and pasting the redacted sections.

The error resulted in Manafort’s attorneys disclosing that Mueller has accused Manafort of sharing polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate who is suspected of ties to Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU.

Secretive Russian GRU tests Trump with brazen tactics

Russia’s secretive military intelligence agency, the GRU, is testing the limits of Western countries with its aggressive tactics and bold operations, prompting action from the Trump administration and some European allies as they seek to counter its behavior.

The Trump administration has sanctioned several GRU officers for launching cyberattacks and has expelled dozens of suspected Russian intelligence officers operating in the U.S. in response to the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in England this year.

The effort to thwart the GRU is part of a broader push by the U.S. government to take a firm stance against Russian aggression, one that has at times been overshadowed by President Trump’s contradictory statements about Russian interference in the 2016 election and his overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

View the complete article by Morgan Chalfant posted September 12, 2018 on the Hill website here.

Cybersecurity firm finds evidence that Russian military unit was behind DNC hack

The following article by Ellen Nakashima was posted on the Washington Post website December 22, 2016:

The Post’s Ellen Nakashima goes over the events, and discusses the two hacker groups responsible. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

A cybersecurity firm has uncovered strong proof of the tie between the group that hacked the Democratic National Committee and Russia’s military intelligence arm — the primary agency behind the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election.

The firm CrowdStrike linked malware used in the DNC intrusion to malware used to hack and track an Android phone app used by the Ukrainian army in its battle against pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine from late 2014 through 2016. Continue reading “Cybersecurity firm finds evidence that Russian military unit was behind DNC hack”