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Illuminati obsessed hacker – mysterious “Guccifer” entertains while outing prominent politicians and media personalities

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Masked hacker in hiding

Who is “Guccifer”?

His screen name is a bit humorous – and a bit scary. Nobody knows where the Illuminati-obsessed hacker originates from (IP addresses originate from Russia but language appears to be distinctly American). And his hacking expertise is well worth noting, especially if you are a politician that has found yourself in his cross-hairs. Right now, the dark spotlight is on “Guccifer” as he entertains us with this latest exploits while outing politicians and other high-profile individuals with his often humorous hacktivist exploits.

The question everyone wants to know is, “Who is Guccifer and what are his motives?”  The Smoking Gun offered some insights into Guccifer’s motives, which are just as entertaining as his exploits:

“In e-mail screeds, “Guccifer” seems to subscribe to dark conspiracies involving the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, and attendees of Bohemian Grove retreats. “the evil is leading this fucked up world!!!!!! i tell you this the world of tomorrow will be a world free of illuminati or will be no more.”

Guccifer exploits begin with George Bush

Guccifer watermarked photo of George Bush painting

George Bush self portraits of himself taking a bath and showerWe first heard of Guccifer in February 2013 after he released a series of emails (dating from 2009 through 2012) and humiliating photos of former President George Bush to the public. Included in his dump, was a confidential October 2012 list of private home addresses, cell phone numbers and e-mails for dozens of Bush family members, including both former presidents, their siblings, and their children, and a cache of photos showing paintings by George W. Bush, including a amateurish self-portrait of our 43rd president taking a shower. One e-mail even included the street address for Bush as well as the four-digit code needed to enter his home’s security gate.

Another email revealed Bush talking about the eminent death of his father, former President George H. W. Bush.  In a December 26, 2012 e-mail to his siblings, George W. Bush wrote that he was “thinking about eulogy” and solicited stories that best illustrated their father’s sweet nature, favorite jokes, and acts of kindness.  In the email, Bush noted:

“Hopefully I’m jumping the gun. But since the feeling is that you all would rather me speak than bubba, please help.”

The mention of “bubba” is likely a reference to Clinton, whom Bush has often referred to as a “brother” due to his close relationship with the Bush family.

The posted photos and e-mails contained a watermark with the hacker’s online alias, “Guccifer”. Guccifer went on to note that he had control of six email addresses belonging to persons close to the two former U.S. Presidents, including Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter of George H. W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush’s brother.

Of course, the FBI quickly scrambled and went after Guccifer, who was indifferent to their pursuit.

“I have an old game with the f**king bastards inside. This is just another chapter in the game.”

Attacks continue

After the high-profile attack on George Bush, Guccifer went on to provide proof of other exploits. As it turned out, Guccifer had pwned around 40 different accounts including those of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, U.N. Under-Secretary-General Joseph Verner Reed, Happy Rockefeller (and others in the Rockefeller family), Rex Evitts (military contractor working on projects in Iraq), Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City author), Carl Bernstein (journalist), Susan Malone (Army supervisor in Afghanistan), and two unnamed former FBI agents.

Attack against Colin Powell

The hacked Facebook page of Colin PowellBarely slowing to take a breath, on March 11, 2013, Guccifer hacked the Facebook page of Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, and uploaded anti-Bush comments to his Facebook page. He then hacked Powell’s AOL account gaining access to Powell’s private email where he found (and released) information about his financials and other personal matters including communications between Powell and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, ex-CIA Director George Tenet, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte.

Attacks against Clinton

Days after the Powell attack, Guccifer hit the AOL email account of former President Bill Clinton’s White House advisor, Sidney Blumenthal. According to The Smoking Gun:

“By breaching Blumenthal’s account, ‘Guccifer’ was able to access his correspondence (dating back to at least 2005) with an array of Washington insiders, including political operatives, journalists, and government officials. Chief among Guccifer’s findings were correspondence with Hillary Clinton, including “foreign policy and intelligence memos” written during Mrs. Clinton’s recent tenure as Secretary of State.”

Guccifer then reformatted the memos with pink backgrounds and the despised Comic Sans font and emailed the documents (using the return email address of a prominent Hollywood actor’s wife) to hundreds of recipients including Russian media outlets Pravda, the Moscow Times, and The St. Petersburg Times.

Hacked Hillary Clinton email accountMost of the e-mail recipients were sent four separate memos that were e-mailed to Clinton by Blumenthal during the past five months. Each memo dealt with assorted developments in Libya, including the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. One memo marked “Confidential” was sent to Clinton on September 12, just one day after the attack.

On March 22, 2013, Guccifer released a second wave of pilfered Clinton emails including memos that discussed the January 2013 Algerian hostage crisis and “info about the inner workings of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s office.” Cleverly, Guccifer removed all email attachments which could have contained metadata leading to the hacker and instead, copied and pasted their contents into a new text file which he widely distributed to the media.

Tony Blair and the Bohemian Grove meeting (maybe Guccifer is on to something here)

Hacked Bush AOL accountDays later, Guccifer released an email snatched from the coffers of Colin Powell’s AOL account that linked former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair with the annual, and highly secretive, meeting of powerful men at California’s Bohemian Grove. The email called into question one of Guccifer’s pet peeves, the Illuminati influence in modern society, stoking the flames and lending credence to his claims of an evil influence in world leadership. The email in question came from Andrew Knight, a former journalist and current executive at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, in which Knight told Powell that after attending the Bohemian retreat, “Tony has not yet got his priorities straight”.

Obama administration compromised

Next, after a few detours targeting media personalities, Guccifer turned his attention back to the political arena targeting the Gmail account of Joshua Gotbaum, director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Two weeks later Guccifer hit the MSN email account of Christopher Kojm, an Obama administration official and head of the National Intelligence Council. The attack gave Guccifer access to Kojm’s personal correspondence, his banking information, Obama transition material, and e-mail exchanges with 9/11 Commission members and staff.

Guccifer’s point was crystal clear – if you’re a politician, you’re a target – and he has shown no signs of slowing up.

So we ask again, “Who is Guccifer?”

Two IP addresses Guccifer has used appear to have originated in Russia (and some email blasts were sent to Russian reporters) but authorities are unsure whether or not those IP addresses had been spoofed (given Guccifer’s creativity thus far, we would assume he has routed his traffic through a proxy). Guccifer, who seems to be an experienced old-hat at this game, also appears to be leaping from politician to politician using information gained from previous attacks to further his exploits.

Yeah, that’s about all we know about Guccifer and we’re willing to bet he intends to keep it that way.

 

Email from Candace Busnhell about her next book

Sources: The Smoking Gun, Gawker, Digital Trends, USA Today, Wikipedia
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