Though a Ukrainian hacking group has claimed responsibility for hacking the emails of Vladislav Surkov, experts suspect the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies.
Before they pulled off one of the most embarrassing cyber heists ever to hit the Kremlin, the hackers from the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, who styled themselves as the online shock troops in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, weren’t really on the radar. They had mostly spent the last two years on easy targets – the computers and cell phones of Russia-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, who are not known for their discipline when it comes to virus protection or, for that matter, anything else. Every once in a while, the hackers would also deface a Russian website, the cyber equivalent of spray-painting graffiti.
