FBI leaves US targets of Russian hackers in the dark

Senior policymakers didn’t know they were targets 

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has found that the FBI failed to tell scores of U.S. officials about attempts to hack into their personal Gmail accounts — despite long having evidence those officials were in the Kremlin’s crosshairs.

The AP interviewed nearly 80 Americans targeted by Fancy Bear, a Russian government-aligned cyberespionage group, and turned up only two cases in which the FBI had provided a heads-up.

Even senior policymakers discovered they were targets only when the AP told them, a situation some described as bizarre and dispiriting.

The FBI has declined to answer most questions from the AP about how it’s responded to the spying operation.

An FBI statement says the bureau “routinely notifies individuals and organizations of potential threat information.”