--- title: Here's the Evidence Russia Hacked the Democrats description: Such as it is. A declassified review comes next month. canonical: https://time.com/4600177/election-hack-russia-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/ author: Massimo Calabresi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-14T02:43:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:21.648Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's the Evidence Russia Hacked the Democrats og:description: Such as it is. A declassified review comes next month. og:url: https://time.com/4600177/election-hack-russia-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt368cbdbcbe87084c/6988b2e3fb4eac0347890312/russia-hacking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-RUSSIA-HACKING-INVESTIGATION-INTERNET-POLITICS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's the Evidence Russia Hacked the Democrats twitter:description: Such as it is. A declassified review comes next month. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt368cbdbcbe87084c/6988b2e3fb4eac0347890312/russia-hacking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's The Evidence Russia Hacked The Democratic National Committee > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Senators Want to Investigate Russia’s Interference in 2016 Election [Watch (HLS stream): Senators Want to Investigate Russia’s Interference in 2016 Election](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2LUEf7fH.m3u8) (0:57)  _Published 2016-12-11. A group of Democratic and Republican senators called for an investigation into reports of Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying they “should alarm every American.”_ by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/) and [Pratheek Rebala](https://time.com/author/pratheek-rebala/) Dec 14, 2016 2:43 AM UTC  An employee walks behind a glass wall with machine coding symbols at the headquarters of Internet security giant Kaspersky in Moscow on Oct 17, 2016. An employee walks behind a glass wall with machine coding symbols at the headquarters of Internet security giant Kaspersky in Moscow on Oct 17, 2016. Kirill Kudryavtsev—AFP/Getty Images by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/) and [Pratheek Rebala](https://time.com/author/pratheek-rebala/) Dec 14, 2016 2:43 AM UTC You are probably not on the list of people who have access to the classified evidence regarding the massive [influence operation](http://time.com/4512771/how-russia-wants-undermine-us-election/?iid=sr-link1) that targeted the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Most who have, including President Barack Obama, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, and pretty much every Democrat in Washington D.C., believe the U.S. intelligence community which has [concluded](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-department-homeland-security-and-office-director-national?txtlnkusaolp00000619) with [“high confidence”](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/09/press-briefing-principal-deputy-press-secretary-eric-schultz-12916) that the operation was directed by Russia. A distinct minority, a handful really, including Donald Trump, [say](http://time.com/4597457/the-downside-of-donald-trumps-fight-with-the-intelligence-community/) the evidence is inconclusive and the intelligence community is wrong. If you’re unwilling to trust either camp, or if you want to find out if one side is acting in bad faith, you have little public information on which to form your own opinion. So how can a citizen decide whether Russia just tried to undermine the core exercise of American democracy or even, as the CIA has reportedly concluded, tried to get Donald Trump elected? Beyond the statements of the public figures above, the only real evidence comes from the analyses of private cybersecurity firms that track and defend against hackers, often in concert with the FBI, NSA and other government agencies. One, CrowdStrike, was called in by the Democratic National Committee to analyze the hack against their computer system last April. With the DNC’s permission, CrowdStrike then [posted](https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/) details of what it had found. Attribution of hackers, whether by intelligence services or private firms, is a particular discipline. Much of it relies on signature methods used by the hackers, specific pieces of code, and distinguishing behavior. CrowdStrike’s co-founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, uncovered evidence that two groups of Russian hackers he had named Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, had been behind the DNC hack. Cozy Bear used a [tool](http://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2015/07/unit-42-technical-analysis-seaduke/) called SeaDaddy that allowed it to stealthily exfiltrate information from a victim’s computer. The tool was almost identical to another exfiltration tool [previously identified](https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/forkmeiamfamous-seaduke-latest-weapon-duke-armory) by Symantec as belonging to the group of Russian hackers known to have operated at the behest of Russia’s FSB, a main successor agency to the KGB. CrowdStrike also found the other group of hackers, Fancy Bear, was sending command and control instructions from a server with an Internet Protocol (IP) address of 176.31.112.10\. This was the same IP address that was linked to command and control of an attack against the German parliament in 2015\. The DNC attacker also used a special program to open a communication channel with the command and control server that was identical in form and function to the one used in the German hack. Microsoft had previously identified the communication program as belonging to Fancy Bear, which Microsoft had [named](http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/4/C/44CDEF0E-7924-4787-A56A-16261691ACE3/Microsoft%5FSecurity%5FIntelligence%5FReport%5FVolume%5F19%5FA%5FProfile%5FOf%5FA%5FPersistent%5FAdversary%5FEnglish.pdf) “Strontium” at the time. Crowdstrike’s analysis includes other evidence of Russian connections. One of the elements of a truly advanced hack is that it opens, and keeps open, a hidden communication channel with the hacked network, allowing it to continue to avoid detection and to find and steal information in other parts of a hacked computer network. In the DNC hack, the software that opened the hidden communication channel was a piece of software known to have been used by Fancy Bear. Subsequent [analyses](http://www.threatgeek.com/2016/06/dnc%5Fupdate.html) by other private firms found other evidence that Russia was behind the hack. And as the attacks broadened over the course of the 2016 campaign to include the DCCC and the email of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta, private firms found evidence linking the new hacks back to the DNC hack. The private firms admit their open source evidence is not conclusive, but say in the world of cyber-attribution, this is close to as good as it gets. Those familiar with the classified evidence say there is even more convincing information that has not been released. President Obama has ordered a review of the influence operation, the results of which will be released before he steps down on Jan. 20, 2017. ## Transcript What the four of us intend this investigation to look at is foreign governments' hacking of American institutions, political and otherwise. [ MUSIC ] The goal is to find out how extensive this is, how deep it is, which countries are doing it. It won't be limited to just Russia. And then to come up with conclusions how to stop it. 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