UNNAMED hackers stole around 30 000 emails from former Secretary of State and retired four-star General, Colin Powell, and gave them to DCLeaks.com
In one of the emails, General Powell, a former Republican, made nasty remarks about Donald Trump to Emily Miller, a journalist who once worked under Powell as deputy press secretary at the State Department.
He called the Republican presidential candidate ‘a national disgrace’ and ‘international pariah’.
Powell’s criticisms have not been limited to Trump.
Another email allegedly sent from Powell to Democratic Party adviser, Vernon Jordan, in May 2016, expressed frustration that Hillary Clinton’s campaign team was trying to equate his use of private email accounts during his tenure as Secretary of State with her own use of a private email server.
The Clinton campaign and its surrogates have frequently cited Powell’s use of personal email in defending the Democratic nominee.
According to The Wall Street Journal, there is speculation among some computer experts and Democratic politicians that DCLeaks.com has ties to Russian intelligence services.
There is concern leaks from the site are intended to influence the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.
According to a Congressional report presented in late July this year (2016), the Chinese Government hacked computers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2010, 2011 and 2013 and employees at the US banking regulator covered up the intrusions.
The report cited an internal FDIC investigation as identifying Beijing as the likely perpetrator of the attacks, which the probe said were covered up to protect the job of FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg, who was nominated for his post in 2011.
The report was released amid growing concern about the vulnerability of the international banking system to hackers and the latest example of how deeply Washington believes Beijing has penetrated US Government computers.
The report did not provide specific evidence that China was behind the hack.
US Steel Corp, in April this year, alleged Chinese Government hackers stole proprietary methods for making lightweight steel on behalf of Chinese steel producers seeking to supply a bigger share of the US auto-making market.
In a complaint filed with the International Trade Commission, the US said a computer belonging to a Pittsburgh researcher was hacked in 2011 and that plans for developing new steel technology were stolen.
In a statement, China’s Commerce Ministry urged US authorities to reject US Steel’s trade complaint and said allegations of intellectual property infringement ‘are completely without factual basis’.
US Steel’s allegations are the latest escalation in a mounting trade fight over China’s massive production and exports of industrial metals, especially aluminium and steel.
Just a few days ago, The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) condemned Russian hackers for leaking confidential medical files of star US Olympic athletes.
Athletes affected include tennis players Venus and Serena Williams as well as teenage gymnast, Simone Biles.
A group calling itself ‘Fancy Bears’ claimed responsibility for the hack of a WADA database. Some have claimed the hack was in retaliation after Russia’s track and field team were banned from the Rio Olympics over an alleged state-backed doping programme.
All of its athletes are barred from the on-going Paralympics.
In November 2014, a hacker group, which identified itself by the name ‘Guardians of Peace’ (GOP), leaked a release of confidential data from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The data included personal information about Sony Pictures employees and their families, e-mails between employees, information about executive salaries at the company, copies of then-un-released Sony films and other information.
Guardians of Peace demanded that Sony pull its film The Interview, a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and threatened terrorist attacks at cinemas screening the film.
After major US cinema chains opted not to screen the film in response to these threats, Sony elected to cancel the film’s formal premiere and mainstream release, opting to skip directly to a digital release followed by a limited theatrical release the next day.
After evaluating the software, techniques and network sources used in the hack, US intelligence officials alleged the attack was sponsored by North Korea.
North Korea denied all responsibility.
WikiLeaks in 2010 started publishing a trove of over 250 000 leaked US State Department cables.
In recognition, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was awarded Australia’s version of the Pulitzer Prize, in addition to the Martha Gellhorn journalism prize he won in the United Kingdom.
The reason being, WikiLeaks gave the public a window into the inner workings of the US Government at an unprecedented scale and in the process, transformed journalism in the digital age.
But there is the other side of the coin, according to classified documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The National Security Agency (NSA) monitored phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by officials in other US Government departments.
A confidential memo revealed that NSA encourages senior officials in its ‘customer’ departments, such as the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their ‘Rolodexes’ so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.