Russia’s preeminent cyber-espionage group, known as APT28 or Fancy Bear, heavily targeted Barack Obama’s staff during the 2008 campaign, according to newly published research by U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Area 1 Security. The former president’s closest allies — including campaign staff, top aides and other senior U.S. officials — began receiving a barrage of phishing emails from Russian spies as far back as 2007, when he was still a U.S. senator. Some Obama associates continue to be targeted, Area 1 said. Ex-officials are still being sent phishing emails even though they left government years ago, a trend that shows the attackers’ persistence in trying to compromise assets. A blog post published Friday afternoon by Area 1 shows that associated phishing emails commonly employed subject lines like “just FYI,” “RFI,” “eFax,” or “Elections.” Several corresponding attachments were titled as “harvard-iop-fall-2016-poll[.]doc” and “37486-the-shocking-truth-about-election-rigging-in-america[.]rtf[.]lnk.” The evidence uncovered by Area 1, a firm founded by National Security Agency veterans, offers […]
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