SAN FRANCISCO — A group affiliated with the Russian government created phony versions of six websites — including some related to public policy and to the U.S. Senate — with the apparent goal of hacking into the computers of people who were tricked into visiting, according to Microsoft.
The company said Monday night it discovered and disabled the fake sites.
The effort by the APT28 hacking group, which publicly has been linked to a Russian intelligence agency and actively interfered in the 2016 presidential election, underscores the aggressive role Russian operatives are playing ahead of the midterm congressional elections in the United States.
U.S. officials repeatedly have warned that the November vote is a major focus for interference efforts.
Microsoft said the sites were created over the past several months, and that the company was able to catch them early, as they were being set up. It did not go into more specifics.