Russian hackers are attacking US conservatives

washington - Russian hackers have focused their arrows on conservatives in the United States. Microsoft warns against this. The company claims to have taken over six domain names from the hackers. There were counterfeit sites of the think tanks The International Republican Institute and The Hudson Institute.

On these fake sites, visitors could log in with usernames and passwords. They would then have fallen into the hands of the hackers. It is not known whether people have been kicked in there. Microsoft says there is no evidence for this. 'We are concerned that such attempts are a threat to a broader range of groups associated with both American political parties in the run-up to the upcoming elections,' said Microsoft.

Many important Republicans are involved in The International Republican Institute, including Senator John McCain, a major opponent of President Donald Trump and Russia. The Hudson Institute has also expressed much criticism of Russia.

Russia denies the accusation of Microsoft. That company 'plays political games' and behaves like a public prosecutor, says Moscow via news agency Interfax.

According to Microsoft, the sites were created by a hacker group called Fancy Bear. Other names for the group are APT28, Sofacy, Pawn Storm, Sednit and Strontium. That group is also accused of breaking into computer systems of the Democrats at the 2016 presidential election.

Fancy Bear is also responsible for cyber attacks on NATO, the White House, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Dutch Safety Board, which is investigating the disaster of flight MH17. These are all organizations that Russia has great difficulty with. This is one of the reasons why the hacker group is associated with the Kremlin.