The risks posed by Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while US secretary of state have been dramatically underscored by the disclosure of five attempts to break into her computer by hackers apparently based in Russia.
Disguised as New York City parking tickets, the malicious emails were contained in the latest tranche of records released by the State Department amid growing concern that Clinton’s decision to avoid using government servers may have made classified information vulnerable to exposure.
There is no indication that this particular attempt was successful or that the suspicious zip files were opened by Clinton, but her personal email address was a tightly held secret and the attempt raises the question of whether she was specifically targeted.
The five emails do not contain identifying marks beyond the fake New York police address but include the instructions “to plead, print out the enclosed ticket” and an attached file named “Ticket-728-2011.zip”.
1 of 5 fake parking tickets received by Clinton's personal email that seem to be phishing attempts by Russian hackers pic.twitter.com/ln4Skz9eEp
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) October 1, 2015
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the zip file contained malicious software, directing an infected computer to transmit information to three addresses overseas, including one in Russia.
The latest batch of Clinton’s emails to be released also show that Tony Blair privately urged Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi to stand aside as rebellion erupted against his regime. The former prime minister advised Gaddafi to find “a safe place to go” as part of a “managed” process of political change before the situation reached “the point of no return”.
The emails include a message from Blair’s head of strategy, Catherine Rimmer, to Jake Sullivan, a senior adviser to Mrs Clinton, dated 25 February 2011, shortly after the uprising began – briefing him on a telephone conversation Mr Blair had had that day with Gaddafi.
Rimmer said Blair was making the call “very privately” and he had delivered a “very strong message” that the violence had to end and Gaddafi stand aside to allow a peaceful transition to take place.
The disclosure is likely to intensify calls for Blair to give evidence to a House of Commons inquiry into Britain’s foreign policy towards Libya.
There is no evidence that the attempt to compromise Clinton’s account, which resembles “phishing” techniques often used by fraudsters, involved the Russian government but it does appear to have been specifically aimed at residents of New York even though there is no clue to her physical location contained in Clinton’s email address, hrod17@clintonemail.com.
The five emails received in close succession in August 2011 contain directions to reply to a court in the misspelled New York town of “Chatam”, or Chatham – a two-hour drive from the Clinton family home in Chappaqua.
The FBI is examining the server used by Clinton during her time as secretary of state to assess whether any classified information was contained in the thousands of emails she received.
The former secretary of state has insisted that she did not send or receive any classified emails, but the status of some information has subsequently been challenged by inspectors working for the US intelligence community.
The Clinton campaign insisted on Wednesday that the five suspicious emails were not necessarily proof of a hacking attempt. The campaign said they were simply spam, although there have been no other obvious spam in the disclosures so far.
“We have no evidence to suggest she replied to this email nor that she clicked on the attachment,” spokesman Nick Merrill told Politico. “As we have said before, there is no evidence that the system was ever breached. All these emails show is that, like millions of other Americans, she received spam.”
Among the 6,000 pages released on Wednesday were emails discussing phone calls made by Barack Obama from the White House situation room to foreign leaders and an assessment of Russian negotiating strategy at the United Nations.
Could this be the sort of thing Russian hackers might have been interested in finding in Hillary Clinton's emails? pic.twitter.com/cZMRbTi1aN
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) October 1, 2015
Clinton emails reveal relief as Obama cleans up diplomatic mess after Wikileaks from the White House situation room. pic.twitter.com/Ig4KrE1bc3
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) September 30, 2015
Critcism of Clinton’s use of a private server, which many believe was designed to circumvent government freedom of information rules, has already heavily overshadowed her attempt to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
The apparent Russian hacking attempt also follows several high profile breaches of State Department and White House computers that have been blamed on the Chinese and led to a major review of IT security in Washington.
