The Kremlin-controlled hacker group Fancy Bears hacked email accounts of Ukrainian officials, Russian opposition, the Pentagon contractors and "thousands of others" within the terms of Moscow's interests.
An article released on Thursday The Associated Press said that a previously unpublished digital hit list "provides the most detailed forensic evidence yet of the close alignment between the hackers and the Russian government, exposing an operation that stretched back years and tried to break into the inboxes of 4,700 Gmail users across the globe - from the pope’s representative in Kyiv to the punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow."
Russian hackers had tried to open 545 mail accounts, including the e-mail of President Petro Poroshenko, his son Oleksiy, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, MP Serhiy Leshchenko, and many other politicians and officials, both former and incumbent.
Among the Russian citizens in the hit list of Fancy Bear is the ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, opposition leader Alexey Navalny with his associates, more than 100 civil society activists, including members of the band Pussy Riot.
In the US, Russian hackers tried to hack at least 573 mailboxes – by then-Secretary of State John Kerri, John Kerry, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-NATO Supreme Commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, and one of his predecessors, U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark.
The list skewed toward workers for US defense contractors such as Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin or senior intelligence figures, prominent Russia watchers and — especially — Democrats..
The hit list covers the period from March 2015 to May 2016, with most of the targets of hackers were in Ukraine, the US, Russia, Georgia and Syria.
On 13 October, the Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said that his country cyber forces have successfully repulsed a third attack by Russian hackers.