DNC Email Hack is Worse than we Thought

The DNC suffered a massive blow last month when thousands of emails were hacked and leaked – revealing a strong but unsurprising political bias towards Hillary Clinton that knocked Party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz out of the convention and convinced her and three other DNC officials to resign. 

The cyberattack has been blamed by “experts” on the Russian government (but this is in no way certain), and was originally believed to have been aimed solely at the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. This week, The New York Times reported that the attack was far larger, breaching the private email accounts of more than 100 individuals and groups.

The FBI has started to compile “a long list” of Democratic officials that hackers may have targeted. Hillary Clinton and her campaign team are at the top of the list.

“Democrats say they are bracing for the possibility that another batch of damaging or embarrassing internal material could become public before the November presidential election,” reports The Times. Those involved in the investigation believe the Democratic Governors’ Association was also hacked, in addition to a DNC voter analytics program used by Hillary’s campaign. 

The authorities still aren’t sure if the attack was politically motivated, but angry Democrats have been quick to blame Russia for trying to influence the election even without proof the Russians were involved. Donald Trump sees the attack as a unique opportunity, and has encouraged the Russians to publish everything they have on the Dems (his comments were sarcasm). 

The FBI has admitted there is no proof the Russians hacked into Hillary’s private server, but FBI Director James Comey has confirmed that someone tried to get in – and that a successful hacker would be too skilled to leave any evidence.

WikiLeaks, the group that released the DNC emails to the public last month, has offered a $20,000 reward for any information on the shooting of former DNC employee Seth Rich. His death may be connected to the hacking incident, but no evidence has been found. 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is publically anti-Clinton and has stated that he wants to hurt her campaign has much as possible. Assange has suggested that he has more material and will be releasing it soon. Meanwhile, the DNC is scrambling to shore up its cybersecurity defenses in preparation for another attack.

Editor’s note: I still maintain that while the Russians likely very easily hacked into these servers, they are not responsible for releasing any documents. A professional intelligence service does not leave tracks or brag about their exploits. And the Russians are indeed pros.