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Election hackers pursued reporters

PARIS (AP) — Russian hackers pursued journalists with the same gusto as when they went after U.S. politicians and intelligence figures, an Associated Press investigation has found.

The espionage group known as Fancy Bear tried to break into Gmail inboxes of at least 200 reporters, publishers and bloggers as early as mid-2014 and as recently as a few months ago, according to an analysis of data supplied by the cybersecurity firm Secureworks and interviews with more than 40 journalists. The list provides a kind of map of the media outlets that regularly draw the Kremlin’s ire.

The list provides new evidence for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Fancy Bear — which Secureworks calls Iron Twilight — acted on behalf of the Russian government when it intervened in the U.S. presidential election, a charge the Kremlin denies. The hackers pursued more journalists than any other group of targets identified by the AP, except for diplomatic personnel and U.S. Democrats.

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