Dc Leaks is a website that was established in June 2016. Since its inception, it has been responsible for publishing leaks of emails belonging to multiple prominent figures in the United States government and military. The site was the source of the emails derived from the Democratic National Committee cyber attacks.
While creators of the DC Leaks describe themselves as "American hacktivists", cybersecurity research firm ThreatConnect concluded that the site is likely linked to Russian persona Guccifer 2.0 and the GRU hacker group Fancy Bear.
According to the DC Leaks site's "About" page, their aim is "to find out and tell you the truth about U.S. decision-making process [sic] as well as about the key elements of American political life." Of themselves, they say that they were launched by "the American hacktivists who respect and appreciate freedom of speech, human rights and government of the people."
While DC Leaks claims to be American-run, cybersecurity research firm ThreatConnect concluded in their analysis that the project shows the hallmarks of Russian intelligence, matching the attack pattern of the GRU hacker group Fancy Bear.
The domain name dcleaks.com was registered on April 19, 2016. The dcleaks.com website was launched in June 2016.
On June 14, 2016, the press reported that the DNC had been breached for nearly a year, from the summer 2015 and the other in April 2016. The attacker was knocked out of its network during the weekend of June 11 and 12, 2016.
On July 1, 2016, DC Leaks released the emails of four-star General Philip Breedlove, the former NATO supreme commander in Europe. The emails allegedly show that Breedlove sought to overcome President Barack Obama's reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2014.
On August 12, 2016, DC Leaks released roughly 300 emails from Republican targets, including the 2016 campaign staff of Arizona Senator John McCain, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and 2012 presidential candidate and former Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann.
On August 12, 2016, DC Leaks released information about more than 200 Democratic lawmakers, including their personal cellphone numbers.
On August 15, 2016, DC Leaks released 2,576 files predominately related to George Soros' Open Society Foundation. The leak included the Foundation's internal work plans, strategies, priorities and other worldwide activities by Soros.
