san francisco <u+2014> at the start of 2014, president obama assigned his trusted counselor, john d. podesta, to lead a review of the digital revolution, its potential and its perils. when mr. podesta presented his findings five months later, he called the internet<u+2019>s onslaught of big data <u+201c>a historic driver of progress.<u+201d> but two short years later, as chairman of hillary clinton <u+2019>s presidential campaign, mr. podesta would also become one of the internet<u+2019>s most notable victims. on thursday, private security researchers said they had concluded that mr. podesta was hacked by russia<u+2019>s foreign intelligence service, the gru, after it tricked him into clicking on a fake google login page last march, inadvertently handing over his digital credentials. for months, the hackers mined mr. podesta<u+2019>s inbox for his most sensitive and potentially embarrassing correspondence, much of which has been posted on the wikileaks website. additions to the collection on thursday included three short email exchanges between mr. podesta and mr. obama himself in the days leading up to his election in 2008. mr. podesta<u+2019>s emails were first published by wikileaks earlier this month. the release came just days after james r. clapper jr., the director of national intelligence, and the department of homeland security publicly blamed russian officials for cyberattacks on the democratic national committee, in what they described as an effort to influence the american presidential election. to date, no government officials have offered evidence that the same russian hackers behind the d.n.c. cyberattacks were also behind the hack of mr. podesta<u+2019>s emails, but an investigation by the private security researchers determined that they were the same. threat researchers at dell secureworks, an atlanta-based security firm, had been tracking the russian intelligence group for more than a year. in june, they reported that they had uncovered a critical tool in the russian spy campaign. secureworks researchers found that the russian hackers were using a popular link shortening service, called bitly, to shorten malicious links they used to send targets fake google login pages to bait them into submitting their email credentials. the hackers made a critical error by leaving some of their bitly accounts public, making it possible for secureworks to trace 9,000 of their links to nearly 4,000 gmail accounts targeted between october 2015 and may 2016 with fake google login pages and security alerts designed to trick users into turning over their passwords. among the list of targets were more than 100 email addresses associated with hillary clinton<u+2019>s presidential campaign, including mr. podesta<u+2019>s. by june, 20 staff members for the campaign had clicked on the short links sent by russian spies. in june, secureworks disclosed that among those whose email accounts had been targeted were staff members who advised mrs. clinton on policy and managed her travel, communications and campaign finances. two security researchers who have been tracking the gru<u+2019>s spearphishing campaign confirmed thursday that mr. podesta was among those who had inadvertently turned over his google email password. the fact that mr. podesta was among those breached by the gru was first disclosed thursday by esquire and the motherboard blog, which published the link russian spies used against mr. podesta. <u+201c>the new public data confirming the russians are behind the hack of john podesta<u+2019>s email is a big deal,<u+201d> jake sullivan, mrs. clinton<u+2019>s senior policy adviser, said thursday. <u+201c>there is no longer any doubt that putin is trying to help donald trump by weaponizing wikileaks.<u+201d> the new release of mr. podesta<u+2019>s email exchange with mr. obama from 2008 made clear that mr. obama<u+2019>s team was confident he would win. in one of the emails, mr. podesta wrote mr. obama a lengthy memo in the evening on election day recommending that he not accept an invitation from president george w. bush to attend an emergency meeting of the group of 20 leaders. <u+201c>attendance alongside president bush will create an extremely awkward situation,<u+201d> the memo said. <u+201c>if you attempt to dissociate yourself from his positions, you will be subject to criticism for projecting a divided united states to the rest of the world. but if you adopt a more reserved posture, you will be associated not only with his policies, but also with his very tenuous global standing.<u+201d> the white house did not respond to questions about the email. correction: october 22, 2016 an article on friday about suspected email hacking by russia<u+2019>s foreign intelligence service misstated the name of one organization that first disclosed that a presidential counselor, john d. podesta, was among those whose accounts were breached. the blog is motherboard, not vice motherload. nicole perlroth reported from san francisco, and michael d. shear from washington. follow the new york times<u+2019>s politics and washington coverage on facebook and twitter , and sign up for the first draft politics newsletter . a version of this article appears in print on october 21, 2016, on page a14 of the new york edition with the headline: private security group says russia was behind hack of clinton campaign chairman. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
private security group says russia was behind john podesta<u+2019>s email hack
nicole perlroth michael d. shear