Read the Email Russian Hackers Used in Spear-Phishing Attack on Election Offices

Russian hackers sent emails impersonating an e-voting vendor to access voting officials’ computers days before the 2016 elections, according to an image of the email recently obtained by The Intercept. The malicious email, which appeared to be from the Tallahassee-based VR Systems, was sent from vrelections@gmail.com, an email address the NSA has identified as being created by Russian government hackers (although the version in the NSA database contained a period, written as vr.elections@gmail.com). If opened, the documents attached to the email would have “invisibly downloaded a malware package that could have provided the attacker with remote control over a target’s computer,” the Intercept writes. The real VR Systems alerted their clients quickly after the malicious e-mail was sent, but they cannot fully estimate the scope of the attack.