Who is Guccifer 2.0? Is Russia involved in DNC hack?

 

First things first. The story begins...

June 14th.
A cyber security firm Cowdstrike announced that Russian pro-government hackers organized a cyber-attack on US Democratic national committee. President of Crowdstrike Shawn Henry and the co-founder  Dmitri Alperovitch in an interview to Washington Post reported their findings. Later that day an official report appeared on the company's site, defining hacktivists as Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, they were supposedly linked with Russian secret sevices FSB and GRU.

Interesting details appear...

June 15th.

A hacker with a nick-name Guccifer 2.0 in his twitter and on his site announced that it was HE who hacked DNC servers and not the Russian hacker groups. As a proof of his "achievement" he posted a huge document containing compromising information on Donald Trump.

And here comes the first reaction...

Many cyber security companies started their own investigations to reveal the truth - who hacked US DNC? Who told the truth - Crowdstrike or Guccifer 2.0?

June 16th.

So first came a report on official site of cyber security firm SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit. 

They proved that Russian hackers APT28 were definitely involved in the cyber attack. Moreover they must have had hidden access to google accounts of DNC and other US government institutions' personal. 

June 17th.

Then a second firm confirmed the information about Russian hackers - Threat Connect. On their official site they uploaded their investigation materials. They suppose that hackers APT28 aka Fancy Bear conducted the attack and hacker Guccifer 2.0 worked for them or even was one of them but he insisted that he worked alone to conceal the Russian involvement.

Another company Ars Technica conducted an investigation too. They agree that it is highly probable that Guccifer 2.0 can be Russia-related.

June 18th.

And as it often happens, one of the media sources Bloomberg decided to contribute to the overall fuss and confusion and posted an article based on an "anonymous competent source" claiming that the Russian hackers not only hacked DNC but perpetrated the WHOLE US POLITICAL SYSTEM and can corrupt it.

The "lone hacker" responds...

June 20th

On his official site hacker Guccifer 2.0 announces his intention to further reveal confidential data now on Hillary Clinton. The world community waits...

The reaction continues. Cyber experts hurry to express their opinions...

June 20th

Michael Buratowski -an expert from a firm  Fidelis Cyber Security posted a report on his company's official blog page. He proved the information given by Crodstrike in the beginning. He said Russian government-related hackers APT28 aka Fancy Bear and APT29 aka Cozy Bear hacked DNC.

Marshall Heilman - an expert from a Fire Eye affiliated firm Mandiant told Washington Post the same thing: Russian hackers APT28 and APT29 are responsible.

June 21th

Dave Aitel- CEO in a cyber security firm Immunity Inc. in an interview for Washington Free Beacon expressed serious doubts as to the Guccifer 2.0 announcement. According to D.Aitel, a lone hacker simply couldn't conduct such an outrageous cyber attack on US government. He thinks it is definitely work of Russian pro-government hackers - one of the steps in a bigger plan to corrupt US political system and crash the US government.

Guccifer 2.0 keeps his word...

June 21th

On his official site hacker Guccifer 2.0 posts a big number of documents (MS Word and MS Exel files generally) as he promised a day before. He proves he really has the leaked data. thus he provokes bigger concerns in cyber expert circles. At the same time doubts still remain as to wether or not he is related to Russian Kremlin...

Last but not least. Some new developments...

June 21th

Mother Board - A magazine that specializes on cyber security high-tech and electronics contacted hacker Guccifer 2.0 and took an interview. We can read the full transcript of it and see the report made by Mother Board specialists. they actually tried to check on the hacker's language skills in Romanian (as he claims to be a Romanian like notorious Guccifer) and Russian. They couldn't prove wether he speaks Russian or not. Mother Board didn't get much useful technical information either. The hacker said in most general words how he managed to breach the DNC security...

So this interesting interview sheds no light on Guccifer 2.0's personality.

Thus we observe a whole horde of IT experts claiming Russian hackers hacked DNC. Only few of them attribute Guccifer 2.0 to the Russians though. But it can be implied that he is Russia-related when specialists say he couldn't do it alone without serious (possibly secret services') support.