Climategate Was an Early Prototype for Russia’s Campaign Hacking in 2016

The Heads of State

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I see that our story about Climategate is now online. You should read it! Here’s why Climategate is worth revisiting:

“If you were a Russian operative [and] pitching influence ops for the DNC, and somebody’s like, ‘Eh, I don’t know about that,’ literally you just turn around and go, ‘Look at how well it worked [with Climategate],’” former National Security Agency analyst Jake Williams tells Mother Jones in our new feature story about the parallels between the two hacks. “I wouldn’t necessarily say one influenced the other, but certainly it’s good proof that that’s a technique that works.”

It is, in fact, remarkable how strong the parallels are between the email hacking at the heart of Climategate in 2009 and the email hacking at the heart of Russiagate in 2016. It’s well worth refreshing your memory on Climategate, since it appears to be an early prototype for a kind of ratfucking that promises to get even more popular in the age of social media.

The story is here. Read it!

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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