Lone Hacker Taking Credit For DNC Breach Is Likely Russian, Says Researcher

Investigators pinned this week's Democratic National Committee data breach on two Russian state-sponsored advanced threat groups, Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear. Yet, shortly thereafter, an anonymous actor, going by the name "Guccifer 2.0," claimed individual responsibility for the DNC attack, and supported their claim by releasing what appeared to be documents stolen from the DNC, reported Ars Technica.  

Much is unknown about Guccifer's involvement or relationships with the advanced threat actors or the Kremlin; but what does seem clear is Guccifer's Russian heritage. Private security researcher PwnAllTheThings highlighted evidence, reports Ars Technica.

The researcher says the first clue is in the computer name Феликс Эдмундович obtained from the metadata inside the hacker’s Word document. This indicates the computer was configured to use Russian language. Translated, this name is Felix Dzerzhinsky who was founder of the Soviet secret police.

The second suggestion, says PwnAllTheThings, comes from the leaked Donald Trump Word document which carries a break in a link displaying the message “Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.” This document, when converted to a PDF file by Guccifer 2.0 and posted on Gawker, carries this same message, but in Russian. 

The third hint is the use of ))) in Guccifer 2.0’s blog post, which, says PwnAllTheThings, is a smiley used by people in Eastern Europe and Russia.

PwnAllTheThings adds clues suggest the hacker may not be native English speaking and also thinks the culprit is unlikely to be a nation-state.

For more details, read here.