Report: Russian Gov’t Hackers Prepped for U.S. Senate Attack

They’re back. The Russian government-linked hackers known as APT28—the same group that successfully hacked the Democratic National Committee—appear to have registered a slew of websites in preparation of an attack against the U.S. Senate, according to new research from cybersecurity firm Trend Micro. “Beginning in June 2017, phishing sites were set up mimicking the ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services) of the U.S. Senate,” senior threat researcher Feike Hacquebord wrote in a blog post published Friday. According to Trend Micro’s research, APT28, which is sometimes dubbed Pawn Storm or Fancy Bear, also targeted a slew of Winter Olympics organizations, including the European Ice Hockey Federation and the International Ski Federation. Back in 2016, the group hacked the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which late last year pushed the International Olympic Committee to ban the entire Russian team from next month’s Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. “With the Olympics and several significant global elections taking place in 2018, we can be sure Pawn Storm’s activities will continue,” Hacquebord adds.