Russia’s hacking of US election blow by blow

Here is what is known about the “who, what and why” of the hacking during the recent US presidential election.

* May: US National Intelligence director James Clapper warned of cyberattacks against the campaigns.

* June: Crowd Strike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate break-ins into its computer systems, pointed to two separate Russian intruders, saying, “both adversaries engage in extensive political and economic espionage for the benefit of the government of the Russian Federation”.

Crowd Strike said hacking entity Cozy Bear, linked to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, intercepted Democratic Party communications from June 2015 onwards, while Fancy Bear, linked to Russia’s security service (FSB), targeted and stole DNC dossiers related to then Republican front-runner Donald Trump beginning in March.

*July: WikiLeaks website begins publishing the pirated material.

* September 5: President Barack Obama warns president Vladimir Putin over the hacking during a meeting in China.

* October 7: Seventeen US intelligence agencies conclude Moscow was behind the cyberattacks and that they were “intended to interfere with the US election process”. * December 9-10: The Washing

ton Post and The New York Times reported that the CIA concluded Moscow intended to help Mr Trump’s campaign by releasing the hacked material.

* December 15, Republican senator Lindsey Graham revealed his campaign accounts were hacked ahead of the vote.

* December 29, The US announces the deportation of 35 Russians suspected of being spies, plus sanctions against the GRU and FSB agencies.

The FBI and department of homeland security release a briefing to provide “technical details regarding the tools and infrastructure used by the Russian civilian and military intelligence services to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the US election”.