Reuters/Grigory Dukor
The Netherlands’ secret services had a front-row seat as the Kremlin-linked Cozy Bear hacker group broke into the computer accounts of U.S. Democratic Party leaders in 2014 and transferred thousands of emails, according to a bombshell report by the Dutch newspaper de Volksrant and TV program Nieuwsuur early Friday. In “a space in a university office building near Red Square,” the AIVD agents penetrated the computer networks of Cozy Bear, also known as APT29, and even managed to infiltrate their security camera to capture images of the elusive Russian team that has frustrated U.S., British, and Israeli intel services for years, according to the report. The details of the operation, said to be confirmed by six U.S. and Dutch sources familiar with the material, is apparently the basis for U.S. intel services’ “high confidence” that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. However, the report states that post-election revelations of the Netherlands’ role by U.S. intel sources have left the Dutch services feeling “betrayed,” and reluctant to share new information, particularly with the Trump White House.