Russian military targeted passwords in wide-ranging hacking campaign, US and UK officials say

For months, Russian military hackers have engaged in a campaign to compromise the passwords of people employed in sensitive jobs at hundreds of organizations worldwide including US and European government and military agencies, US and British national security officials said Thursday.

The extensive effort also targeted political parties, government offices, defense contractors, energy companies, think tanks, law firms, media outlets and universities, the officials said. The password-hacking campaign, which official believe is almost certainly still ongoing, is part of a broader effort by Russia's GRU to collect information from a wide range of sensitive targets, said a joint advisory by the National Security Agency, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the UK's GCHQ.