Last week saw the announcement of yet another high-profile network breach. On June 14, 2016, the press reported that hackers had penetrated the Democratic National Committee’s (“DNC”) network for nearly a year. Most notably, the hackers had accessed and taken the opposition research database on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The DNC denied that any financial, donor, or personal information was accessed or taken.

According to the DNC and CrowdStrike, the computer security firm that examined and shut down the breaches, the DNC’s system was breached by two different groups—one in summer 2015 and the other in April 2016. CrowdStrike described both groups as affiliated with Russian intelligence services. Russia has denied all involvement in the DNC hack. Days after the announcement, a hacker named Guccifer 2.0 claimed responsibility for the 2015 DNC breach, and claimed not to be connected to Russian intelligence. This hacker also disputed the claims that there had been no access to financial and donor information, and released documents purported to be donor spreadsheets and from Hillary Clinton’s files as Secretary of State. The authenticity of those files has not yet been confirmed.

The DNC has stood by its initial findings and implied that the posting by Guccifer 2.0 may be part of a Russian disinformation campaign to deflect blame. Nonetheless, the release raises questions about whether the DNC has a complete understanding of the extent of the breach or even whether there may have been yet another unrelated breach. In any event, this attack drives home the fact that hackers pose an ever-present threat to any organization’s data and networks.

Reporter, Alex Yacoub, Atlanta, +1 404 572 2758, ayacoub@kslaw.com