On December 13, 2016 Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger and Scott Shane published "The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S." in The New York Times. This long article explained in detail how hackers from Russia conducted
"a cyberespionage and information-warfare campaign to disrupt the U. S. presidential election, the first such attempt by a foreign power in American history. What started as an information-gathering operation, intelligence officials believe, ultimately morphed into an effort to harm one candidate, Hillary Clinton, and tip the election to her opponent, Donald J. Trump."