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Alleged Russian Hacker ‘Guccifer 2.0’ Is Back After Months Of Silence

The hacker, who claimed to be behind the DNC hack and who is actually a front for Russian spies according to US intelligence, has resurfaced online.
Image: a katz/Shutterstock

The hacker (or hackers) who calls himself Guccifer 2.0, who months ago claimed to be the lone culprit of the hack of the Democratic National Committee against the Democratic National Committee, has resurfaced online after more than two months of complete silence.

"I really hope you've missed me a lot," Guccifer 2.0 wrote in a new blog post. "Though I see they didn't let you forget my name."

Read more: How Hackers Broke Into John Podesta and Colin Powell's Gmail Accounts

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The hacker was last seen online when they claimed they were planning to be an "independent observer" on US election day. Since then, they hadn't tweeted, blogged or answered any of Motherboard's private messages.

In June of 2016, the Washington Post and security firm CrowdStrike revealed that the DNC had been hacked by Russian spies. Hours later, Guccifer 2.0 appeared out of nowhere to claim responsibility for the hack. His initial claim seemed hasty, was peppered with numerous English errors, and some of the documents they leaked even contained Russian metadata, leading several security researchers to conclude that Guccifer 2.0 was no "lone hacker," but a front for the Russian government trying to cover its own hack.

In an exclusive interview with Motherboard, Guccifer 2.0 denied the accusation, claiming to be a Romanian "hacker, manager, philosopher, women lover." Yet, they couldn't really speak Romanian, according to several linguists.

"I really hope you've missed me a lot."

Over the following weeks, Guccifer 2.0 evolved from a sloppy activist with crappy English skills and superficial political views to a professional leaker, slowly publishing documents related precisely to the main battleground states, as Vocativ reported.

Even his English improved. In his new blog post, the hacker uses impeccable English. (Perhaps they took their time off to take some language classes.)

Guccifer 2.0 is probably a deep cover advert for Duolingo judging by how well his English has improved over the past few months

Joseph CoxJanuary 12, 2017

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The hacker also criticized the US intelligence agencies, who've accused him publicly of being controlled by Russian spies.

"I'd like to make it clear enough that these accusations are unfounded. I have totally no relation to the Russian government. I'd like to tell you once again I was acting in accordance with my personal political views and beliefs," Guccifer 2.0 wrote. "The technical evidence contained in the reports doesn't stand up to scrutiny. This is a crude fake."

For months, President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the claim of security researchers, and later the US intelligence apparatus, that Russian government hackers were behind the DNC hack. It could've been a "400 pound hacker" or maybe China, Trump said. Then on Wednesday, Trump finally conceded and said "I think it was Russia," during his first press conference in more than six months.

Despite having encouraged people to send him questions via Twitter, Guccifer 2.0 did not respond to my message.

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