Clinton Foundation cautions donors about targeted phishing attempts to steal information

The Clinton Foundation has reportedly cautioned donors about targeted phishing attempts to swipe donors' personal information. Citing two contributors and a copy of an email, Reuters reports that the nonprofit organisation, founded by former President Bill Clinton in 2001, informed donors via email that hackers were attempting to obtain personal information from donors through fraudulent emails that claim to be from the foundation.

"I'm writing because it has come to our attention that some Foundation donors have received emails saying their Foundation account information has been hacked, and seeking to confirm personal information via a linked website," the email, dated 5 October and signed by the organisation's chief development officer Danielle Stilz, which was sent to donors, reads.

"This email is not from the Clinton Foundation — it is a phishing attempt," she wrote, adding that donors who have any further questions about the authenticity of the emails can reach out to her. The organisation also reassured donors that there was "no evidence that our system was breached".

Reuters reports that the foundation did not respond to requests to verify the authenticity or comment on the phishing email "whose formatting appeared to match that of the organization's emails and included the same reply-to address as a separate, legitimate email to donors".

Earlier this week, hacker Guccifer 2.0 claimed to have breached the Clinton Foundation's servers to release a trove of allegedly stolen documents including a list of donors, a list of financial industry contributions, a list of mostly California donors and more, in addition to a screenshot of files he claimed to have obtained including one titled, "Pay to Play".

"Hillary Clinton and her staff don't even bother about the information security," the hacker wrote. "It was just a matter of time to gain access to the Clinton Foundation server."

The New York-based foundation and other sources within the Democratic Party denied the claim.

"Once again, we still have no evidence Clinton Foundation systems were breached and have not been notified by law enforcement of an issue," the organisation said in a statement. "None of the folders or files shown are from the Clinton Foundation."

Sent out a month before the anticipated 8 November elections, the email follows a series of cyberattacks targeting US political organisations. In July, Guccifer 2.0 claimed credit for the much-publicised, massive breaches at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which led to a number of high-profile resignations.

While many intelligence, security and Democratic officials as well as cybersecurity experts have linked the attacks to the Russian government, the Kremlin has vehemently denied the accusations.