https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ligence-agencies-cozy-bear-aivd-a8181046.html
How a Dutch intelligence agency secretly hacked into the Kremlin’s most notorious hacking group
Reports claim Netherlands alerted Washington of influence in 2016 presidential elections after officials watched Russian group bypass Democratic National Committee and other operations
Rick Noack
Saturday 27 January 2018 16:03
The organisation were said to be based near the Red Square in Moscow ( AFP/Getty )
Dutch domestic intelligence service AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacking group Cozy Bear for at least a year starting in mid-2014, local media outlets said on Thursday.
According to the reports, the Dutch government alerted the United States to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections after Netherlands-based officials watched the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other operations by the Russians, including a 2014 State Department hack.
The DNC hack, revealed by The Washington Post in June 2016, was considered a pivotal event in a series of actions believed to be undertaken by the Russian government to meddle in the US presidential election that year. Two independent research firms later confirmed that the DNC's network was compromised by Russian government hackers.
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The Dutch agency's involvement was first reported by current affairs programme Nieuwsuur and newspaper de Volkskrant on Thursday. Reached by The Washington Post on Friday, the domestic spy agency AIVD had no comment. The Dutch military intelligence service, MIVD, did not respond to a request for comment.
According to Dutch media, AIVD agents also watched when Russian hackers launched an attack at the State Department in 2014, and compromised unclassified systems at the White House as well as in Congress.