Dutch spied on Moscow cyber attack on US election

DUTCH spies reportedly broke into computers used by a Russian hacking group that interfered in the US election, even watching the Kremlinbacked outfit on their own office surveillance cameras.

In an extraordinary counter-espionage operation, agents in the Netherlands penetrated the systems of the Russian cyber unit called Cozy Bear in mid-2014 and monitored them for at least a year. They collected CTTV footage of individuals involved and located the group to a university building near Red Square, Moscow.

Dutch operatives informed the CIA and helped remove Cozy Bear from US State Department computers they had hacked into in late 2014. They also monitored the hackers’ attempts to undermine unclassified computers in Congress and the White House.

Cozy Bear would later be identified as one of two Russian governmentlinked groups that hacked the Democratic National Committee, releasing emails embarrassing to Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 US election.

The Dutch role in the unmasking of Cozy Bear hackers was reported by the respected daily newspaper de Volkskrant, and Dutch television current affairs programme Nieuwsuur.

Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch interior minister, declined to confirm or deny the reports, but said she was “very happy that we have good security services ... that do their work well”.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Vladimir Putin, denied the claims. He added: “If the Dutch media want to fuel anti-russian hysteria in the US, it’s an activity that can’t be called honourable.”