Marina Butina pictured in 2014. Butina had been in contacts with some civil rights groups that had been the victim of website defacements. (Flickr / Pavel Starikov)
The Russian national took a keen interest in a D.C.-based organization's cybersecurity vulnerabilities soon after the group was hit by phishing attempts last year.
Website defacement is increasingly becoming a staple in the toolkit of activists looking to bring attention to their causes online, according to a report from cybersecurity company…