Which Russian agency hacked the DNC in 2016?

• A. GRU.
• B. SVR.
• C. FSB.
• D. KGB.

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is understanding who is behind state-level cyber intrusions. The GRU is Russia’s military intelligence agency, and it has a long track record of conducting aggressive cyber operations overseas. In 2016, the U.S. intelligence community attributed the breach of the Democratic National Committee to GRU-linked actors, specifically the group commonly associated with Fancy Bear (also known as APT28). They targeted DNC systems with spearphishing, gained footholds in the network, and exfiltrated data later seen in public releases.

Understanding the others helps clarify why this attribution fits: the FSB is Russia’s domestic security service, focusing on internal security and law enforcement within Russia, not primarily known for the kind of broad political-network intrusions seen against the DNC. The SVR is Russia’s foreign intelligence service, but the particular intrusion into the DNC is the operation most strongly linked in public reporting to the GRU’s cyber-operations framework. The KGB no longer exists; it was dissolved in the early 1990s into agencies including the FSB and SVR, so it wouldn’t be the correct label for a 2016 operation.

So, the operation is best attributed to the GRU.