Bitcoin, malware and blind luck helped Russian agents hack Democratic Party computers in 2016 election
WASHINGTON - The email landed in John Podesta's crowded inbox around March 19, 2016, during the height of the presidential primaries, and it appeared to be a standard security request from Google for Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman to change his password.
Doing so ultimately led to a political firestorm that is still raging.
The email was actually from Aleksey Lukashev, a senior lieutenant in Russian military intelligence, using the account "john356gh" to mask his purpose, U.S. officials say. The email contained an embedded link that secretly opened Podesta's account to a hacking team at 20 Komsomolskiy Prospekt, near Moscow's Red Square.
Two days later, the Russian cyber thieves stole - and later leaked - more than 50,000 of Podesta's private emails, incalculably undercutting Clinton's bid for the White House.
On Friday, the Justice Department indicted Lukashev and 11 other officers in the
