Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian hackers say they got through internal emails of Russian spy responsible for hacking 2016 Clinton campaign

A group of hackers from Ukraine said they have intercepted the emails of a Russian military spy wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The spy was allegedly responsible for hacking US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the 2016 elections.

A group of Ukrainian hackers called Cyber Resistance, in a post on the Telegram messaging platform on Monday, said it stole the correspondence from Russian Lt. Col. Sergey Morgachev, who was charged in 2018 for his involvement in organizing the hack and leak of emails of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The hacker group shared personal information of Morgachev on the Ukrainian outlet InformNapalm.

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology researcher Stefan Soesanto, who studies Ukrainian hacker groups, said the information gathered by the hacker group was “pretty credible” and that InformNapalm is known for cross-checking the data it receives from hackers.

InformNapalm said in a report of the breach that Morgachev’s identity was confirmed by looking through personnel files and a curriculum vitae stolen by the hackers. This included a document that named Morgachev as a department head in Unit 26165, which is the same position the FBI accused the Russian officer of in 2018.

It remains to be seen how significant the information that the hackers stole was, as Morgachev’s email inbox could potentially give a look into Russia’s hacking operations, including the operations against Clinton and the Democrats.

The FBI described Morgachev as an officer in Russia’s military intelligence agency in its indictment of Morgachev. The indictment said Morgachev’s department was “dedicated to developing and managing malware,” including the “X-Agent” spy software that was used to hack into the DNC.

Meanwhile, Russia is planning to introduce electronic draft papers in an effort to make it more difficult for Russian men to evade getting drafted to fight in Ukraine. The plans were approved by the lower chamber of the Russian parliament in two separate votes on Tuesday with overwhelming majorities.

In the new proposal, the drafts would be sent electronically to a potential draftee’s personal account on the main government portal. Those who do not show up at Russia’s military enlistment office will be banned from overseas travel and face several other restrictions.