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Microsoft Thwarts Russian Cyberattacks on Anti-Trump Conservative Think Tanks

Hackers targeting Republicans that have broken with the president.

A Kremlin-backed cyberoperation that was targeting several anti-Trump conservative think tanks was reportedly foiled by Microsoft last week. The company said early Tuesday that it had seized six websites set up by the hacking collective known as Fancy Bear, a group controlled by the GRU and believed to have been behind the 2016 Democratic National Committee hack. Microsoft received a court order to take control of the sites, including several that were apparently disguised as congressional staff websites, with domains like “senate.group” and “adfs-senate.email.” Microsoft said there is no evidence to suggest the domains were used in successful attacks, but the company is still working with the target organizations to determine if any information was compromised. The news comes as the FBI begins an investigation into cyberattacks against two Democratic congressional primary candidates, David Min and Hans Keirstead. Investigators have not yet announced any potential suspects in those breaches.