(RNN) – A Russian intelligence officer could be behind the online persona “Guccifer 2.0,” according to a report published Thursday.
Guccifer 2.0 gained notoriety after boasting about providing WikiLeaks with hacked Democratic Party emails during the 2016 presidential election. Guccifer has claimed to be a Romanian activist.
An article published Thursday by The Daily Beast contends the hacker has a direct connection to GRU, Russia’s military intelligence outfit.
U.S. intelligence officials and security experts have long suspected a connection between the online persona and Russian intelligence.
Sources for The Daily Beast assert that Guccifer 2.0 accidentally outed himself as a Russian officer after failing to properly use a virtual private network – or VPN – to hide his Moscow-based Internet Protocol address.
The hacker visited a U.S.-based social media site after the slip-up, leaving his IP address in the site’s server logs. U.S. investigators were then able to identify Guccifer as a specific GRU officer who works at the agency’s headquarters in Moscow – although The Daily Beast said its sources didn’t disclose the identify of the officer who posed as Guccifer.
The revelation could impact the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between the Russian government and members of the 2016 Trump campaign to sway the U.S. presidential election.
The report claims that Mueller has taken over the government probe into Guccifer and has brought the FBI agents assigned to investigate the persona onto his team. Mueller didn’t confirm these developments to The Daily Beast when asked to comment.
Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser of President Donald Trump, has admitted to contacting Guccifer over Twitter, though he has denied that Guccifer has Russian government connections.
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