A year before Russian hackers stole emails from Democrats and used them to try to sway the 2016 US presidential election, the group was itself hacked by a Dutch intelligence agency, according to reports from the Netherlands.

The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD had access to the Russian hacking group called APT29, or Cozy Bear, starting in 2014, according to Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

Dutch intelligence agency AIVD Credit:Google Maps

Cozy Bear achieved worldwide fame in 2016 after US intelligence agencies determined it was one of the groups that had targeted the White House, State Department and other US government institutions.

Once AIVD located the hacking group geographically, near a university building by the Red Square in Moscow, the agency then gained access to security cameras which revealed who entered and exited the facility.