absolutely this is a staffer for the international republican institute which until i think one week ago is headed by sen john mccain who according to the new york times has turned that group into a revolving door for lobbyists and out of power republicans the international republican institute operates under the umbrella of the national endowment for democracy and it played a key role in interfering in the nine hundred ninety six mongolian elections and bringing to power right wing neo liberal parties which put the nail in the coffin of socialism in mongolia what we've seen since then in mongolia's record inequality and that is what the international republican institute and the ne d. itself want to bring to north korea. they simply want to overturn socialist governments and open up more markets for american corporations and international finance it's not really about democracy at all and there's so much in your report you even managed to confront the house democratic minority leader nancy pelosi about the efforts to promote political transitions abroad let's listen to that as well.

or go to the international republican institute dot org it's where phishing campaign trying to get users to log on to these web addresses and enter their credentials they think they're communicating with the senate or the right wing think tank but in fact by giving their credentials to hackers the russians deny any involvement this is what a kremlin spokesperson said we do not know what hackers they're talking about we don't know what is meant by influence on election we hear confirmations for america that there was no influence on elections who exactly are they talking about we don't understand what the proof and the basis for them drawing these kind of conclusions such information or proof is lacking microsoft hasn't really furnished us with any real evidence of the russian involvement but certainly this adds to that atmosphere of fear about russian involvement or alleged involvement in the election process here in the u.s. well it says on joining us from washington d.c. is j.d. westby who's chief executive of the advisory firm global cyber risk j.d. welcome to the program and this is

from visitors to think tanks the heads and institute in the international republican institute have their websites copy microsoft says it's part of a russian plot to influence remember midterm elections moscow is denying any involvement calling the allegations a witch hunt cher bhutanese is following the story joins us now from washington so fake websites copying websites tell us more about this she. right well microsoft shut down these domain names last week in fact but they only announced it today as part of some marketing push cybersecurity big business now for various. especially as the elections approach several web domain names were registered which sound familiar domain names such as sign that dot services senate email senate group. or. those to the right wing think tanks that you mentioned spearfishing it's called people into these these will they get emails from these domain names. names the websites created with those domain names they think they're communicating with the hudson institute or. in fact not communicating their credentials to hackers but apparently microsoft shut al

or go to the international republican institute dot org it's where phishing campaign trying to get users to log on to these web addresses and enter their credentials they think they're communicating with the senate or the right wing think tank but in fact by giving their credentials to hackers the russians deny any involvement this is what a kremlin spokesperson said we do not know what hackers they're talking about we don't know what is meant by influence on election we hear confirmations for america that there was no influence on elections who exactly are they talking about we don't understand what the proof and the basis for them drawing these kind of conclusions such information or proof is lacking microsoft hasn't really furnished us with any real evidence of the russian involvement but certainly this adds to that atmosphere of fear about russian involvement alleged involvement in the election process here in the u.s. the northeastern coast of venezuela has been hit by a major earthquake of magnitude seven point three that's according to the u.s. geological survey the quake was cent

dot org international republican institute another right wing think tank we have this response from the from from the kremlin microsoft this is evidence of a crime then widening its attacks ahead of the twenty eighteen mid-term elections although didn't provide any further evidence for that this is what the kremlin said we do not know what hackers they are talking about we don't know what is meant by influence of elections we hear confirmations from america that there was no influence on elections who exactly are they talking about we don't understand what the proof of the basis for them drawing these kind of conclusions such information proved is it lacking there is one interesting irony here is that institute think tank whose name i couldn't pronounce the international republican institute is a great reminder of how the u.s. pioneered election of difference because they the international public attitude is a think tank that was really owns of dollars tens of millions of dollars into elections around the world quite overtly supporting usually right wing opposition parties mounting soci

or go to the international republican institute. it's a swift campaign trying to get users to log on to these and web addresses and enter their credentials they think they're communicating with the senate or the right wing think tank but in fact by giving their credentials to hackers the russians deny any involvement this is what a kremlin spokesperson said we do not know what hackers they're talking about we don't know what is meant by influence on election we hear confirmations for america but there is no influence on elections who exactly are they talking about we don't understand what the proof and the basis for them drawing these kind of conclusions such informational proof is lacking microsoft hasn't really furnished us with any real evidence of the russian involvement but certainly this adds to that atmosphere of fear about russian involvement or alleged involvement in the election process here in the us. hundreds of venezuelans are crossing the border illegally into ecuador they're racing to each group before new entry restr

instance, as we have said, that this is a focus not just on democrats, but the iri, the international republican institute. the hudson institute. seeing a broadening to address these kinds of think tanks in both political parties, which is what was saw in france last year. emily: you are also announcing you are expanding microsoft's "defending democracy" program. security toiding campaigns, think tanks, political organizations. why is microsoft so active in this arena compared to other tech companies? brad: i think there are a number of tech companies doing more. at microsoft, we recognize we are in the business of ensuring the cybersecurity of our customers. many of these candidates and political parties and think takes -- tanks are our customers. this newo provide with initiative, state-of-the-art, cybersecurity protection at no extra cost so they are on par with our most sophisticated enterprise customers. we want to do this because both these are our customers and i think we all have a responsibility to do more. emily: that was microsoft president brad smith. meantime, facebook and twitter said they r

iri, thehe letters international republican institute.members are members of the senate might start to receive emails. they would be told there is a problem with their account, that they need to go to this website. it would look like the senate site or the iri site. then it is off to the races for these kinds of attacks? the attackers will attempt to use that to access peoples email, to download all their email, to access the broader networks in which documents might be stored. : did any of this activity start or has any of the activity or ramp upen start after that summit in helsinki between president trump and president putin. >> i don't think that we can connect this to any specific event like helsinki. i think is more generalized like taking place in 2018 as we approach the midterm elections. this is a focus not just on democrats, but the international republican institute. more on the conservative side of the political spectrum. emily: you are providing to campaigns, think tanks, political organizations. >> i think there are a number

microsoft there is that little bit of irony here though that one of these organizations the international republican institute makes its living from interfering in elections around the world we've covered it here on on al-jazeera before there's been hundreds of thousands of dollars going into other countries promoting democracy but all of that usually means is social media campaigns and so on but usually right wing candidates whom the american establishment wants to win these are the sort of the exit polls that russia has not been accused of doing here in the u.s. but it is interesting to see these sort of technique. spearfishing cyber attacks all the things which the u.s. really pioneered in other people's elections now being used against the u.s. i guess so she has this is this information is coming out at the same time that the u.s. is announcing additional sanctions against specific russians are these two connected as a as a coincidence what else do we know about these sanctions yeah as i said this microsoft announcement was it was just a marketing thing of it but they were just doing but there are a lot

how the national endowment for democracy and its republican partner organization the international republican institute which was run by john mccain had effectively toppled the government the elected democratically elected government of haiti john bertrand aristide the liberation theology preacher who was socialist oriented in his love a last movement which was a big challenge to american control of domination of haiti and they funded all these opposition groups they controlled them they strategized and they got them to basically sabotage the political system and create the context for a violent coup so i learned about it back then i returned to this subject again and again but most explicitly this summer when i attended an awards ceremony that the ne d. hosted on capitol hill with a bipartisan cast of members of congress four korean defectors and activists who were funded by the u.s. government dedicated to promoting regime change in north korea and what was significant about this event was it was timed for the day of the trump him summit to sabotage plans for peace between north and south korea so yo

webses that mimicked the international republican institute. and users were secretly their information was stolen. >>> a google location tracking lawsuit aims to include anyone with a cell phone. a man was san diego filed a suit seeking class action status the same day google admitted it stores users' location history even if they disable the setting. he claimants t an -- claims it's an invasion of privacy. those who turned off the tracking will be eligible to join the lawsuit. >>> and wine makers turning to divine intervention before the start of grape harvesting today. a ceremony will take place, the blessing of the grapes. local clergy will honor the grapes and vineyards and the people who harvest. >>> still ahead, one company aims to make the balancing about easier for new mothers. >>> and why reading the fine print on travel insurance is more important than ever. >>> and well i particularly clear start to the day. but things are clearing up. where that's happening and what you can expect on the back side of these clouds. university of nort

just to log in information from visits as to think tanks the hudson institute and the international republican institute had their web sites copied and microsoft says it's part of a russian plot to influence november's midterm elections moscow denies any involvement afghan forces have launched a fear is sarah sultan kabul after rockets were fired at the presidential palace jury deliberations helicopters targeted a house in the afghan capital from where the fighters launched their assault i suppose says it was behind the attack president's ashraf ghani is was speaking in a live broadcast when he was interrupted by the rockets could do we think it kate if they think that with rocket attacks this nation will surrender they have to think again it is a brave tough nation as always ready to defend its independence and islamic tradition but israel is racing to reach peru before new regulations come into force on saturday which mean they will need passports went to the country more than two hundred people defied similar new rules in ecuador on tuesday walking across the checkpoint to groom chakka this is a gove

they're going after republicans, most notably these two groups, the hudson institute and the internationalpublican institute. those are two conservative think tanks. they're notably anti-russian, vociferously against president putin. the iri has board members who are very vocal in their anti-putin stance. those include senator john mccain, mitt romney, and many others. now, we have to note we have not heard a response from the white house today, but we have heard from the kremlin. we got this rather interesting statement from them, which says, from the u.s., we hear that there was not any meddling in the elections. whom exactly they're talking about, what is the proof, and on what grounds are they reaching such conclusions? so wolf, they are saying they don't know anything about this hacking, they don't know anything about these hacking groups, but look at that. from the u.s. we hear there was not any meddling until the elections. who are they hearing that from? the highest levels of the u.s. government are saying the russians did hack into the 2016 elections. the only person who's wafflin

the new york times this morning about these new targets the hudson institute and the international republican institute. you write the shift to attack conservative think tanks underscores the russian intelligence agency's goals to disrupt any institutions challenging moscow and president vladimir v. putin of russia. >> that's right, john. you have to remember, these aren't really partisan attacks that are under way. these are attacks that the russians are designing to pursue their own national interests. if that meant they were supporting donald trump over hillary clinton two years ago, it may mean today that they're supporting that part of the republican party that is lining up with president trump in his view is rather unusual view within the party about how to go deal with russia. and that they're trying to go after those institutions, including the hudson institute and the international republican institute, which does a lot of democracy promotion and has done for years done this democracy promotion. that they would attempt to try to undermine those operations. now, the other fascinating part about

for the first time in 25 years, the international republican institute will have a new leader.can senator john mccain is battling brain cancer and is stepping down from his role as chairman. alaska senator dan sullivan will take over the role. he told the washington post, "john mccain is irreplaceable, so it is humbling to be selected to lead the board and continue iri's great work." two different views of the outcome of zimbabwe's election. the preside

addresses with words like senate group senate dot services hudson org i r i organize the international republican institute dot org it's where phishing campaign trying to get users to log on to these and web addresses and enter their credentials they think they're communicating with the senate or the right wing think tank but in fact by giving their credentials to hackers the russians deny any involvement this is what a kremlin spokesperson said we do not know what hackers they're talking about we don't know what is meant by influence on election we hear confirmations for america but there is no influence on elections who exactly are they talking about we don't understand what the proof and the basis for them drawing these kind of conclusions such information or proof is lacking microsoft hasn't really furnished us with any real evidence of the russian involvement but certainly this adds to that atmosphere of fear about russian involvement alleged involvement in the election process here in the us facebook says it's taken down more than six hundred fifty fake accounts that were part of disintegration campa

this time it's republican political opponents of president trump, the hudson institute and international republican institute and david gregory, the president as we heard from jeff mason a moment ago is subconsciously still equivocating here, saying i'm not sure it was the russians, if it was the russians. >> yeah. look, i think this is the same story with president trump. he cannot focus on the threat from russia without seeing it as a way to delegitimize his presidency. i just don't think he can get his insecurity and his egoout of the way to focus on it as a president of the united states should. and the reality is what that means is that the intelligence community can be doing its work, the fbi can be doing its work. if you look at the reporting "the new york times," companies like microsoft are working with the federal government to keep the radar up, to detect this, to report it out. the news media is reporting this out. so we have a heightened sense of awareness. imagine how much more effective it could be if you have the president of the united states in the rose garden, all the

. >> it's certainly true the international republican institute and the hudson institute have been longstanding defenders of democratic principles, really around the world. there's no doubt that they've often advocated a strong stand on some of the practices in russia. we also saw a focus on three fake websites clearly focused on the united states senate. i think the smart thing for us to conclude as a nation is that everyone across the political spectrum is both vulnerable and a potential target of attack. we need to put aside enough of our differences to come together, to do what it takes to defend the democratic process in this country. >> and when you said the targeting of the senate, are you talking about senator nelson's and senator mccaskill's campaigns? >> the three websites that were the heart of what we addressed this past week were generic senate sites. they weren't focused on any specific senator or senate office. and the good news is both with respect to those sites and the hudson institute and the international republican institute, there is no evidence that these attacks were suc

hudson institute and international republican institute. both critical of president trump's advances to vladimir putin and also toward russian foreign policy. we have to point out that apparently no evidence that these domains were used for successful hacking or spear phishing attacks. this is months after deputy attorney general rod rosenstein indicted 12 russians for election campaign and meddling. we know a few days later, president trump seemed to side with the russians instead of the intelligence services while at the helsinki summit with putin. now president trump gave an interview to reuters where he would offer russians sanctions if they work with u.s. with russia and syria and ukraine. this got back to russia and this seems to be a fact that the russians believe it is them who will take the lead role and the u.s. that needs to follow at least in syria. finally, right now, i'm at the russian largest arms expo to showcase the stealth fighter jet. another way russia wants to challenge the united states. >>> thank you, fred. imagine yo

through his work at the international republican institute under the partnership of the national endowment for democracy which i'm part of it and i respect the work that they do. but john mccain was a champion for democracy in america. but more significantly, he was a champion for democracy around the world and he actually did the work. he traveled with his colleagues from the republican party to do it with the international republican institute and with his democratic friends in the national democratic institute, all working to plant seeds of democracy in places all around the world so people could experience the remarkable way we have a government that invites people to be part of it and it is a -- it is a we the people government of the united states and john mccain made sure that every person in america recognized that they had a chance to be part of that we that makes this country great. >> thank you so much, andy card. thank you for your recollections about this great man, john mccain. and a statement from president george herbert walker bush, bush 41 writing john mccain was a public

. >> the hackers created websites that mimicked the hudson institute and the international republican institute. microsoft said users were secretly redirected to webpages where their passwords and other information was stolen. >>> facebook now using a system to predict the trustworthiness of its users. the company calls it a reputation score. users are scored on a scale. facebook says the ratings system was created over the last year to help fight fake news. the company says it is not meant to be an absolute measurement of trustworthiness. >>> a change for an iconic treat on supermarket shelves. animal crackers are being released from their cages after 116 years. you may not recognize the packaging of the classic cookie. the colors look right but the animals on the box are no longer behind bars. they are now free to roam. the package redesign comes after an animal rights organization called for e soh b brothers giving a new meaning to the words family business. >> reporter: they are two of the newest police officers, the vargas brothers. they came up working the fields of california soon to pat

senator don mcgahn, mitt romney are on the board of the international republican institute. those are two men who have been very openly critical of the president. does that signal something or is it just impossible to know without going back to the source and figuring out exactly -- what do we summize from it? >> what's important to note, the russians aren't really strictly partisan in their campaigns. their overarching goal is to divide and conquer. is to foment confusion and doubt. and set one up against the other. and so they can do that by hacking into republicans and as well as hacking into democrats. yes, these are conservative institutes whose board members have not been shy about voicing criticism of the president when they believe it's warranted or, for instance, the hud sson institute recently hosted the director of intelligence dan coats who learned about the lights are blinking red here in america. and, you know, the russians are the most aggressive actor in the space. and they are, you know, we could be -- we need to be very aware of and alert to any big cyberat

through his work at the international republican institute under the partnership of the national endowmentor democracy which i'm part of it and i respect the work that they do. but john mccain was a champion for democracy in america. but more significantly, he was a champion for democracy around the world and he actually did the work. he traveled with his colleagues from the republican party to do it with the international republican institute and with his democratic friends in the national democratic institute, all working to plant seeds of democracy in places all around the world so people could experience the remarkable way we have a government that invites people to be part of it and it is a -- it is a we the people government of the united states and john mccain made sure that every person in america recognized that they had a chance to be part of that we that makes this country great. >> thank you so much, andy card. thank you for your recollections about this great man, john mccain. and a statement from president george herbert walker bush, bush 41 writing john mccain was a public s

created sixgroup web domains that mimic organizations such as the international republican institute.rosoft said it is sifting through evidence of the group's intentions, and getting a court order to take over the domains. global news, 24 hours a day on air and at tic-toc on twitter, powered by 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. anna: thank you very much juliette saly in singapore. from aaces headwinds deleveraging campaign, and trade frictions. tom mackenzie spoke to the manning charge of government statistics in beijing. tom joins us now. what did he have to say? what was his conclusion. tom: it was interesting. it is where to get face time with an official of this rank. he is the head of the statistics bureau here. he stressed china's stats can be trusted. he was also try to push back against the idea that the soft economic data we have seen out of china suggests the economy has been derailed in any way. he said he expects the gdp target of about 6.5% to be met or beaten by the end of the year, even as he conceded tensions with the u.s. ove

the sites looked like pages from the hudson institute whether or not the international republican institute. they're known for promoting human rights. they have chairs like mitt romney, john mccain, and hr mcmaster. they intercepted before attacks went down. but we are less than three months from the midterm electi n elections. joining me now, the former director of the national terror center and the national security and intelligence analyst. jeff and betsy are here, as well. the headline, russia is still at it. >> what i took away from the reporting overnight was two things. first, it tells us it is concrete reaffirmation of what we already knew. we knew this from the director of national intelligence, dan coats, and chris wray, who said the campaign, the effort to mess with our politipolitics, is not historical but present and continuing. it is probably focused on the 2018 elections as much as anything else. the second thing i took away from the information overnight was the fact that it came from microsoft. what it tells me is that microsoft, the private sector, is prepared to work with

the second was made to look like the international republican institut institute. they have leveled fierce accusations against russian president vladimir putin on the board of iri you have some of the most prominent anti-putin critics like senator john mccain. former national security adviser h.r. mcmaster and mitt romney. and when you look at the other names of the six different internet domains, three contain the word senate so it looked like these russian hackers from the hacker group fancy bear which is tied to russian military intelligence. we have to remind our viewers that claire mccaskell of missouri was the target of an attack found out by microsoft. microsoft in this statement. mccaskell said we are concerned by the continued activity targeting these and other sites toward elected officials, politicians, political groups and think tanks across the political spectrum in the united states. taken together this pattern mirrors the type of activity we spau saw in the 2016 election in the united states and the 2017 election in france. so microsoft stepping up t

russian government creating fake webs e websites posing as the hudson institute and the international republican institutethe report says the hackers have targeted conservative think tanks that are pushing for continued sanctions against moscow. >>> michigan's top public health official will stand trial for manslaught manslaughter for two deaths. nick lyon waited too long to alert the public. two men died from the disease caused by the city of flint switching its drinking water source in 2014. they say he knew of the outbreak but waited a year to inform the public. he denies any wrongdoing. >>> the epa is releasing a plan to roll back restrictions on coal fired power plants imposed by the obama administration. it would allow states to relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades. the plan could set up a lengthy court battle. >>> drinking milk at breakfast may do a body good after all especially for diabetics. drinking milk in the morning is better than water when it comes to controlling blood sugar levels later in the day. high protein milk had a greater effect helping to slow the digestion o

afghan women's council, the international republican institute women's diplomacy network, the national italian american foundation and most importantly a board member of the white house historical association and chair of the committee that organized the presidential site summit. mark updegrove is in author, presidential start and president and ceo of the lbj foundation in austin, texas. until recently he served as the director of the lyndon johnson library and museum for 8 years. he has authored four books on presidential history including his newest book, the last republicans inside the extraordinary relationship between george hw bush and george w. bush. mark is a commentator for abc news, good morning america and this week. finally our third panelist is stewart mclaurin . he's president of the white house historical association. his 30 plus career in washington has been in senior roles at georgetown university, american red cross and motion picture association. he worked with ron reagan presidential foundation to conceptualize, plant and execute the ronald reagan centennial celebra

how the national endowment for democracy and its republican partner organization the international republican institute which was run by john mccain had effectively toppled the government the elected democratically elected government of haiti jumper trying to aristide the liberation theology preacher who was socialist oriented in his love of last movement which was a big challenge to american control of domination of haiti and they funded all these opposition groups they controlled them they strategized and they got them to basically sabotage the political system and create the context for a violent coup so i learned about it back then i returned to this subject again and again but most explicitly this summer when i attended an awards ceremony that the ne d. hosted on capitol hill with a bipartisan cast of members of congress for korean defectors and activists who were funded by the u.s. government dedicated to promoting regime change in north korea and what was significant about this event was it was timed for the day of the trump kim summit to sabotage plans for peace between north and south korea so

two of them are political conservative think tanks, one being the international republican institutee hudson institute and u.s. senate websites that were designed to look legitimate. microsoft said it has no evidence these hackers were successful in their attempt but this is scary considering what happened in the 2002 presidential election. jillian: apple taking preorders. >> reporter: that is the rumor. they are saying german wireless carriers preparing for september 21st as the official launch date for the new iphones, preorders will start around september 14th with an official announcement from apple. we should know media invites at the end of august so we will find out when the exact date for the unveiling is. time for the good, the bad and the ugly. an american hero gets a high school diploma. the 90 when-year-old with a graduation ceremony more than 70 years in the making. >> the nypd, the military story, how he never got his high school diploma. >> reporter: he was supposed to graduate in 1945, he joined the nypd after the war. >> a crocodile spotted floating on a pool in flor

legitimate websites from us political groups, think tanks here, one of them is the international republican institutee others being the hudson institute and websites from the u.s. senate, trying to make those look real. microsoft says they have no evidence these hackers were successful but they are ahead of the elections. jillian: your next new birth trip to the airport could be more efficient. >> reporter: airports in new york city where huber is starting this effort, going to laguardia or jfk, users will be asked to select their airlines, that will give a more accurate eta and drivers will get more direct information, and navigational error. this will make sure the prices are more accurate. we start airports in new york city, we plan on rolling this out to airports across the country. >> i am in newark guy. and providing his own party, john kasich wants to run as a republican against donald trump but is that the move to make? lee carter, why this is an to play to win the white house. ♪ todd. hold on. [ engine revs ] arcade game: fist pump! your real bike's all fixed. man, you guys are good! well, w

the hudson institute and international republican institute, conservative think tanks that have been itical of moscow and vladimir putin. >> i work a lot with the hudson institute. they are running a kleptocracy initiative whose purpose is to shut down the access of international criminals and people who loot their countries to the protections of our world, our rule of law world through shell corporations and various kinds of sleazy anonymity and i think the russians see that as a direct threat at their oligarchs who are almost inevitably crooks and people looting their country and who want to take their ill-gotten gains and find security for them in the rule of law world. so i think it makes sense for hudson institute to be in their gun sights and i hope the hudson institute is not discouraged and they keep fighting on this. i'm a democrat and they're republican but i think there's room for real bipartisan national security progress going after these international thieves and crooks who like to seek shelter in our system. >> so this is no coincidence that they went after this hudson

one has the letters iri, the international republican institute.mployees or board members or members of the senate might then start to receive emails. they would be told there is a problem with their account. they need to go to this website and it would look like this senate site or the iri site and enter in there you will name and password. once that happens, then it is off to the races for these kinds of attacks. the attackers will attempt to use that to access people's emails, to download all of their emails, to access the broader network in which there documents might be stored. emily: one of the websites, the domain name was senate.group. did any of this activity start, or has any of the activity that you have seen started or ramp up when that summit in helsinki happened? brad: i don't think we can link this to any specific summit. i think we can see it as more generalized as taking place in 2018 as we approach the midterm elections. i think it is also significant in this instance that this is a focus, not just on democrats, but the iri, the h

mark served as president of the international republican institute, serves as ceo of global development and served as the us global leadership commission, not all at the same time but usually as well as other important duties as well. you would all recall he was also the us ambassador to tanzania from 2007 until early 2009 and before that a four term congressman representing a wisconsin. ladies and gentlemen, the only flaw i can find in his resume was the national attachment to . [inaudible] hopefully we can continue to support the bears sometime today. [laughter] is one year of service as usaid administrator has been successful, these returned to latin america where he went to take stock of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding as a result of the democratic political steps of the government and other priorities as well.these issues are timely and relevant and is important the united states is exercising leadership and that mark green and usaid are at before. this is the best of the american people and weare thankful for such dedication . it's a privilege does this session today, join me i

republican candidates themselves but conservative think tanks. the first is the hudson institute. the second is the international republican institute. both have been critical of president vladimir putin and russia and their corruption. you can see on the screen some of the board members of the -- of iri, some of the most vocal anti-putin critics. those were two out of the six websites. three of the others had the word senate in the address, which makes it looks like the group was trying to either go after -- was trying to go after certain senators, certain senate offices. it's unclear which. this wouldn't be the first time. last month, we learned that senator mccaskill, a democrat from missouri, was targeted in an almost identical attack by russian military intelligence. mccaskill is one of the most vulnerable senators in the midterms. microsoft has come out aggressively this morning and with a statement saying, despite last week's steps -- that's when they swooped in and shut down the websites -- we are concerned by the continued activity targeting these and other sites and directed toward elected officials, politicians, political

government that tried to spoof legitimate websites including two political think tanks, international republican institute hold son institute, as well as the u.s. senate. microsoft said it has no evidence that hackers were successful in getting anyone to click on the fake qbs. website. >> another day, another tesla story. now, some of the suppliers are worried that they might not get paid from the company. >> yes, more trouble for tesla. "the wall street journal" reports that tesla's trouble year has sparked some worry among suppliers about the the company' stability after coastally production of the model 3. the journal reports that a recent survey sent from an unnamed well regarded automotive supplier association two top executives found that 18622 blof that tesla is now a financial risk to their company. >> we'll see what elon muck is on twitter today to comment about that. paul allen's space company is revealing future plans. lauren: getting competitive now but straddle launch systems that's the space company of microsoft cofounder paul allen unveiled details of rocket reusable space cargo developing

reporter: the hudson institute and the international republican institute, both of them are opposed to the trump agenda. both of them critical of lifting sanctions against the putin regime. on monday microsoft says it seized internet domains used by same russian military out put linked to other hacks, domains designed to mimic the think tank websites. they would be directed to the fake sites where their passwords are stolen. microsoft used a court order to disrupt and transfer the six domains out of the hands of hackers. we have used this approach 12 times in two years to such down 84 fake websites associated with this group. a kremlin spokesman denied the allegations. it isn't clear who the hackers in question are. microsoft's announcement came on the same day that two senate committees are examining russian influence in the u.s. election system with democrats especially anxious to avoid a repeat of 2016 where the u.s. intelligence assessment found that russia favored donald trump over hillary clinton and worked clandestinely to affect the outcome of the election. democrats are concer

hackers built two other imposter sites, one for the hudson institute, and one for the international republican institute. both are conservative groups that have broke within the president, and both have very hawkish views when it comes to russia. cnn's fred pleitgen is in moscow for us. fred, the kremlin response today, i suspect, was deny? >> reporter: i would say it's even more than deny. the kremlin spokesman was in a conference call with reporters earlier today, and he didn't just deny these new allegations, he basically said that the russians had absolutely no idea what all of this is about. they say that so far, they believe that not enough information was provided for them to even issue a denial, and they say a lot of the players that are involved in this, they don't even know if these players exist or who they are. i want to read a little bit of the statement that was put forward. he said, quote, our reaction has already become traditional. we don't know which hackers they're talking about. we don't know what is meant about the impact on elections. it was interesting because we asked in that sam

to be -- they want to link it to the conservative hudson institute, the other to the international republican institute. these are two conservative think tanks. two think tanks that have been critical of president vladimir putin and the russians and have been in support of sanctions. there you see on the screen some of the board members of iri. some of the most vocal and aggressive opponents of russia and president vladimir putin, including senator marco rubio, john mccain, mitt romney, h.r. mcmaster. then when you look at the other sites that fancy bear set up, three of the names included the word senate, which meant -- which appears to mean that they were trying to go after certain senators, certain senate offices. it's not clear because microsoft did intervene in what looks like an early stage which senators they might have gone after. we do know last month, we heard that senator mccaskill of missouri, one of the most vulnerable democrats, was targeted also by russian military intelligence. we have not heard from the white house yet today. we have heard from the kremlin. of course, you can imagine t

organizations informally tied to the republican party and the target was for example the hudson institute a conservative thing very critical of russia or. international republican institute and nonprofit organization that has worked for decades in promoting democracy around the world and according to experts the shift to attacking conservative organizations and of course russia as a goal to diminish and disrupt and the organizations challenging russia and its governments and when we talk about it is group that is allegedly behind these attacks offend seabird is a well known to the investigators here in the u.s. it describes itself as the international hacker team but its members are russian speakers and they operate on moscow time they were allegedly behind an attack against a white house state has they have allegedly infiltrate a computer system of several government. systems and they were responsible at that the most important fact for the e-mail it sect of democratic national committee all garble want to go to you and next to according to microsoft president brad smith the fancy bear was also were active ahead of the french presidential election t