Reddit has revealed that Russian hackers breached platform and leaked official US and UK trade believe documents Experts .the leak was part of a long-running hacking campaign with political aims.
The leak occurred in late October. A Reddit user, named Gregoratior, posted files from US-UK trade discussionsthat had taken place at the Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG).
Experts found that the leaked documents were authentic and related to the upcoming British elections, which will be held on December 12.
According to the documents, the UK's Conservative Party plans to sell the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) in an attempt to create favorable terms of cooperation with the American side. The publication of these documents was useful for the rival Labour Party, which took advantage of the leak to strengthen its position and attract more voters.
Reddit blocks 61 accounts
“We investigated this account [Gregoratior] and the accounts associated with it, and we believe it was part of a campaign originating from Russia,” Reddit said.
“As a result of this investigation, we are blocking 1 subreddit and 61 accounts in accordance with our policies against voter manipulation and abuse of our platform,” the company said.
According to Reddit, Gregoratior and the other 60 blocked accountswere linked to a Russian political campaign, which Facebook also blocked in May.
DFRLAB: The campaign had started in 2014
The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) linked Facebook accounts to a long-running campaign originating in Russia and targeting several countries. DFRLab dubbed the campaign “Secondary Infektion . ”
According to DFRLab, the purpose of this Russian campaign was to “spread false stories that affect Western interests.” Initially, Russian hackers spread false stories generally online and then used Facebook accounts.
DFRLab said the Secondary Infektion campaign used at least six languages, exploited more than 30 platforms, and operated dozens of fake accounts. The campaign appears to have started in 2014.
“The aim of the operation appears to have been to discredit and divide Western countries,” DFRLab said. Some of the fake news circulating was aimed at creating tensions between NATO allies, particularly Germany and the United States, as well as Britain and the United States.
"The business came from Russia. It was long-standing, sophisticated and had sufficient resources (financial).".
According to the data, the campaign emphasized trade issues between the countries. Sometimes the news covered issues directly related to Russian foreign policy.
New GUCCIFER 2.0?
Researchers noted that the tactics used in this campaign were similar to attacks targeting the 2016 US presidential election.
Hackers linked to the Russian government had breached the Democratic National Committee's servers and stolen documents and emails, which they published through a fake account called "Guccifer 2.0."
In the current campaign, Gregoratior operated in a similar manner. He stole confidential data and published it online. However, the leak of these documents did not have as much impact as the one in 2016.
