Bear on bear

Fancy meeting you here

THE breach of Democratic Party computer systems attracted plenty of headlines this summer. What has attracted less attention is that two separate teams of Russian hackers were at work, evidently unaware of each others’ activities. One of them—nicknamed Fancy Bear by the cyber-security firm Crowdstrike—is thought to be linked to Russian military intelligence, the GRU. Its aim was to steal information and leak it. Dmitri Alperovitch of Crowdstrike, which was hired by the victims, terms this “active measures”: spy parlance for direct intervention in a foreign country’s affairs.

But another group, code-named Cozy Bear, was also inside the Democratic Party’s computer networks. It was engaged in traditional espionage, quietly collecting information about the party’s inner workings—a high-priority target for any foreign government, but particularly the Kremlin. Its interests, and the more sophisticated technical means it used, suggest that it was working for another part of Russia’s intelligence apparatus. Don Smith of Dell Secureworks, another cyber-security company, reckons that the subtler...Continue reading

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