Russian hackers used U.S. online infrastructure against itself

WASHINGTON (AP) — Exactly seven months before the 2016 presidential election, Russian government hackers made it onto a Democratic committee's network.

One of their carefully crafted fraudulent emails had hit pay dirt, enticing an employee to click a link and enter her password.

That breach of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was the first significant step in gaining access to the Democratic National Committee network.

To steal politically sensitive information, prosecutors say, the hackers exploited some of the United States' own computer infrastructure against it, using servers they leased in Arizona and Illinois. The details were included in an indictment released Friday available for rental — that can be used to commit crimes with impunity. Reaching across oceans and into networks without borders can obfuscate their origins.

The indictment painstakingly reconstructs the hackers' movements using web servers and a complex bitcoin financing operation.

Two Russian hacking units were charged with tasks, including the creation and management of a hacking tool called "X-agent" that was implanted onto computers. The software allowed them to monitor activity on computers by individuals, steal passwords and maintain access to hacked networks. It captured each keystroke on infected computers and took screenshots of activity displayed on computer screens, including an employee viewing the DCCC'S online banking information.

From April to June 2016, the hackers installed updated versions of their software on at least 10 Democratic computers. The software transmitted information from the infected computers to a Gru-leased server in Arizona, the indictment said. The hackers also created an overseas computer to act as a "middle server" to obscure the connection between the DCCC and the hackers' Arizona-based server.