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Emails show how Clinton campaign chair was apparently hacked

In this Oct. 5, 2016 file photo, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta speaks to members of the media outside Clinton's home in Washington. New evidence appears to show how hackers earlier this year stole more than 50,000 emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, an audacious electronic attack blamed on Russia's government and one has resulted in embarrassing political disclosures about Democrats in the final weeks before the U.S. presidential election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
In this Oct. 5, 2016 file photo, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta speaks to members of the media outside Clinton's home in Washington. New evidence appears to show how hackers earlier this year stole more than 50,000 emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, an audacious electronic attack blamed on Russia's government and one has resulted in embarrassing political disclosures about Democrats in the final weeks before the U.S. presidential election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) In this Oct. 5, 2016 file photo, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta speaks to members of the media outside Clinton's home in Washington. New evidence appears to show how hackers earlier this year stole more than 50,000 emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, an audacious electronic attack blamed on Russia's government and one has resulted in embarrassing political disclosures about Democrats in the final weeks before the U.S. presidential election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

By Associated Press 3 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – New evidence appears to show how hackers earlier this year stole more than 50,000 emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, an audacious electronic attack blamed on Russia’s government and one that has resulted in embarrassing political disclosures about Democrats in the final weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

The hackers sent John Podesta an official-looking email on Saturday, March 19, that appeared to come from Google. It warned that someone in Ukraine had obtained Podesta’s personal Gmail password and tried unsuccessfully to log in, and it directed him to a website where he should “change your password immediately.”

Podesta’s chief of staff, Sara Latham, forwarded the email to the operations help desk of Clinton’s campaign, where staffer Charles Delavan in Brooklyn, New York, wrote back 25 minutes later, “This is a legitimate email. John needs to change his password immediately.”

But the email was not authentic.

The link to the website where Podesta was encouraged to change his Gmail password actually directed him instead to a computer in the Netherlands with a web address associated with Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand located in the South Pacific. The hackers carefully disguised the link using a service that shortens lengthy online addresses. But even for anyone checking more diligently, the address – “google.com-securitysettingpage” – was crafted to appear genuine.