Twitter suspends hacker's account which released Democrats' details

Micro-blogging website Twitter suspended the account of Guccifer 2.0 - a hacker (or hackers) who compromised Democratic National Committee's (DCC) computer network and leaked its emails -- on Saturday, after it revealed a cache of information stolen in a cyber-assault.

Wikileaks, which itself sparked a firestorm a few weeks ago by publishing a massive trove of emails from the DNC, which resulted in the resignations of the organisation's top brass-was among the first to notice Guccifer's account had been suspended, a CNBC report said.

"@Guccifer_2 account completely censored by Twitter after publishing some files from Democratic campaign #DCCC," Wikileaks tweeted.

In the trove of information released, Guccifer 2.0 also uploaded files to its blog post that contained contact information of staff members and campaign aides along with login information to subscription services used by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), including Washington newspapers.

"As previously noted, the DCCC has been the target of a cyber security incident, and we are cooperating with federal law enforcement in their ongoing investigation," DCCC Press Secretary Meredith Kelly said in a statement late Friday.

"We are aware of reports that documents claimed to be from our network have been released and are investigating their authenticity," CNN quoted Kelly as saying.

According to cyber experts, there was no way to verify the identity of the individual or group known as Guccifer 2.0.

The name is a reference to a Romanian hacker who pleaded guilty to hacking several prominent politicians and figures, including former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, who went online by Guccifer, CNN reported citing the experts as saying.

"The attack bore similar hallmarks to the one that exposed the DNC's communications, which showed staffers favouring the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton over that of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. The controversy ended up costing the DNC's chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, her job," the report noted.

Last month, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign along with other Democratic Party organisations was hacked as part of a larger cyber attack. It followed two data breaches involving the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the DNCC.

During the same time, Twitter permanently suspended the account of conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos -- a vocal supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump -- after a mob of his Twitter supporters got into an online confrontation with actress and comedian Leslie Jones.

--IANS

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