Russia is already meddling in the 2018 election - here's who they're targeting this time

According to a report from The Daily Beast, the same Russian intelligence agency behind the cyberattack in the 2016 election is already meddling in the 2018 midterm election.

Here's who they're targeting

The report said that the alleged hacking attempts were aimed at staffers for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and used the same tactics that were successful against former Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta.

The attacks involved links sent to the staffers' email addresses that were made to look like official notices from their websites requesting a password change. The link provided also mimes official email address change websites, but sends the information to hackers.

Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for customer security and trust, revealed that three candidates had been targeted already but that they were shut down in their efforts.

“We did discover that a fake Microsoft domain had been established as the landing page for phishing attacks, and we saw metadata that suggested those phishing attacks were being directed at three candidates who are all standing for elections in the midterm elections,” Burt said.

“We took down that domain and working with the government actually were able to avoid anybody being infected by that particular attack,” he added.

'Putin is a thug and a bully'

McCaskill indicated that the "phishing" attempts to gather passwords were unsuccessful.

“Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable,” McCaskill said to The Daily Beast. “While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a thug and a bully.”

Trump said Russian meddling is real

President Donald Trump said Tuesday on Twitter that the Russians would likely meddle in the 2018 midterm elections, but on the side of the Democrats.

"I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election," he tweeted.

"Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats," he added. "They definitely don’t want Trump!"

Here's a news report about the cyberattack attempt: