It was discovered that a hacking group from Russia called Fancy Bear, has targeted and leaked data from at least 200 journalists, publishers and bloggers since mid-2014.
The Associated Press identified journalists as the third-largest group the hackers have hacked, after obtaining the list from cybersecurity firm Secureworks, and after diplomatic personnel and U.S. Democrats. About 50 of the journalists worked at The New York Times. Another 50 were either foreign correspondents based in Russia.
Others were prominent media figures in Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltics or Washington.
The U.S. intelligence community concluded that Fancy Bear acted on behalf of the Russian government when it intervened in the U.S. presidential election. Spy agencies said that the Fancy Bear hackers were working to help Republican Donald Trump.
The Russian government however, had denied this, and said that it never interfered in the American election.
According to AP, Fancy Bear has used phishing emails to compromise Russian opposition leaders, Ukrainian politicians and U.S. intelligence figures, along with Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and more than 130 other Democrats.
In Russia, the majority of journalists targeted by the hackers worked for independent news outlets like Novaya Gazeta or Vedomosti, Some reporters, like Roman Shleynov, was targeted when he was working on the Panama Papers, trying to expose international tax avoidance that implicated some people Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
Fancy Bear also targeted more than 30 media targets in Ukraine, including journalists at the Kyiv Post and others, that were covering the Russia-backed war in the country.
Many journalists told the AP that they knew they were under the hackers' threat, explaining that they had added a second layer of password protection to their emails and only send messages through encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, WhatsApp or Signal.
Others said that they've routinely delete their emails.