Russia’s preeminent cyber espionage group, known as APT28 or Fancy Bear, heavily targeted former U.S. President Barack Obama’s staff while they campaigned for office in 2008, according to newly published research by U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Area 1 Security.

"Sometimes people are suspicious because of all the hype about Russia and Russians, that makes our lives harder," Eugene Kaspersky said.

"Flashpoint’s hypothesis [is] that the Macron leak was undertaken by Fancy Bear."

An elite hacking group linked to the Russian government masqueraded as a NATO representative to send a barrage of phishing emails to diplomatic organizations in Europe, including Romania’s Foreign Ministry of Affairs, documents show.

U.S. Cyber Command is not “optimized” today to combat information operations orchestrated by foreign powers, said NSA Director and U.S. Cyber Command head Michael Rogers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. “It right now is not in our defined set of responsibilities per say,” Rogers told lawmakers. “I would be the first to admit that [information warfare] is not what our workforce is optimized for …we are certainly not where we need to be.”

In the fight against Russian misinformation campaigns, U.S. diplomats are hamstrung by outdated laws and rules, and they are technologically ill-equipped for battle, a State Department advisory panel was told Tuesday.