By Frida Ghitis, CNN
Whoever orchestrated the release of emails hacked from the Democratic Party computers knew exactly what they were doing. But while there’s no question the content of the emails matters, it’s worth widening the lens for some important and troubling context to the hack, context that points to outside interference from an outside power.
The identity of the hackers, who shared a trove of Democratic National Committee emails with WikiLeaks, is yet to be confirmed. Yet many are already pointing the finger at Russia. And this is hardly surprising given the panoply of alleged Russian efforts to influence events across the West, including political contests in other democratic countries.
But before looking at why Russia is being mentioned, it’s important to understand what happened with the DNC leak.
Most people probably only heard about the hack this weekend, after the WikiLeaks release. But news of a tech attack aimed at the DNC actually emerged weeks ago. Last month, Internet security firm CrowdStrike confirmed DNC suspicions of a breach, posting on its website that it had deployed its emergency response team after a call from the DNC and “identified two sophisticated adversaries on the network.” It says that the hacking groups burrowing into Democratic files go by the cuddly names of COZY BEAR and FANCY BEAR. CrowdStrike says it knows them well.
“Both adversaries engage in extensive political and economic espionage for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” says the security firm’s blog, linking them to Russia’s “highly capable intelligence services.”
These conclusions are consistent with other analyses that have suggested that at least one of the actors involved in the DNC hack has been involved in breaches of computers at the White House and the State Department, among other entities.
