Report: Dutch Spies Watched Russians Hack the DNC

A new study sheds light on why US intelligence has been so confident Russia tried to interfere with the 2022 presidential ballot. They had the assistance of a Dutch ally, which spied on the state-sponsored hackers every bit they infiltrated the Democratic National Commission.

SecurityWatch Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, citing six unnamed American and Dutch sources, reports that the Dutch security service known as the AIVD snooped on the Russian hacking team Cozy Bear past penetrating its computer network in a Moscow academy building dorsum in the summer of 2022. Specifically, information technology witnessed the Russian hackers stealing thousands of emails and files from the DNC.

The AIVD so warned U.s.a. intelligence about the hack, but it reportedly spied on Cozy Bear for up to 2.five years, and even had access to a security camera within the Moscow edifice, where the Russian hackers were based.

"Not only can the intelligence service at present encounter what the Russians are doing, they can also see who's doing it. Pictures are taken of every company," the report said.

From those pictures, Dutch intelligence deduced that a Russian intelligence agency known as the SVR actually leads Cozy Comport.

So far, the FBI and the AIVD haven't commented on the reporting. But on Fri, a Russian presidential spokesman dismissed information technology equally adding "fuel to the fire of anti-Russian hysteria." Dutch newspapers are not the most reliable source, the spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency TASS.

Still, the De Volkskrant report echoes a 2022 Washington Mail service article that indicated a Usa ally had hijacked the security cameras of a building used by the Russian hackers.

According to De Volkskrant, Cozy Bear is a small team of about x people. The building they use is located virtually Moscow's Cherry-red Foursquare, but the Dutch security service is no longer inside Cozy Conduct's network. "Hacker groups frequently change their methods and even a dissimilar firewall tin cut off access," the report said.