Environmentalists Targeted Exxon Mobil. Then Hackers Targeted Them.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating a global hacker-for-hire operation that sent phishing emails to environmental groups, journalists and others.
Three years ago, several environmental groups noticed that they had been receiving suspicious emails with fake Google News articles and other links related to their climate-change campaign against Exxon Mobil. The emails came from accounts that impersonated their own colleagues and lawyers.
Those phishing emails have now led to a federal criminal investigation into a sprawling hacking-for-hire operation that for years has targeted the email accounts of government officials, journalists, banks, environmental activists and other individuals, according to people briefed on the inquiry.
As part of the investigation, federal prosecutors in Manhattan conducted interviews earlier this year with environmental groups that received the emails, including the Rockefeller Family Fund, some of the people familiar with the inquiry said.
Prosecutors are investigating the hackers behind the operation and who hired them, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they could discuss an ongoing investigation. Exxon Mobil has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
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