Alfa Bank and Trump's campaign deny using the servers to communicate

Trump's server went dark not long after reporters started asking questions

Servers were designed to communicate in 'secretive' way, Tea Leaves says

A server at the Trump Organization may have communicated secretively with Russia, a group of computer scientists believe.

A malware hunter going by the nickname Tea Leaves told Slate in a story published Monday he had found the server in July.

Closer observation revealed the server, registered to Trump Organization on Fifth Avenue, was communicating exclusively and covertly with Moscow-based Alfa Bank, according to Tea Leaves and his colleagues.

When reporters began asking questions, Trump's server went dark, the computer scientists claimed.

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A server at the Trump Organization may have communicated secretively with Russia, a group of computer scientists believe

The Trump campaign and Alfa Bank have both denied using the servers to communicate.

Tea Leaves, according to Slate, is part of a community of computer scientists who go after hackers and cyber-attackers.

Cyber-security experts narrowed down on Moscow in the spring after allegations that Russian hackers had gotten into the Democratic National Committee's servers.

They thought Trump's campaign might be at risk as well and decided to investigate to 'preserve the integrity of the election', one of them told Slate anonymously.

Tea Leaves encountered the server registered to the Trump Organization by scouring the domain name system (DNS).

The DNS is a protocol that regulates communications on the internet. It is what allows internet users to type in the name of the website and to land on the appropriate page.

The DNS makes it possible to link the name of the website to the actual page by prompting communication between servers.

Computer scientists can spot signs of malware by inspecting DNS databases.

Some of them work for private contractors and keep a close eye on communications between servers around the world.

This is what Tea Leaves was doing when in July he spotted signs of malware coming from Russia.

Alfa Bank was founded in 1990 by Ukraine native Mikhail Fridman. The bank's top men were described to Slate as being like 'judo pals' with Vladimir Putin (pictured right)

He took note of it and investigated further. It turned out, according to Tea Leaves, that a bank in Moscow was sending pings to a server registered to the Trump Organization, based on Fifth Avenue.

Tea Leaves enlisted the help of six colleagues and gave them logs of the DNS activity on the Trump server.

The communications, according to the experts, followed the pattern of human exchanges, as opposed to automated conversations. They occurred during office hours in New York and Moscow and showed a 'sustained relationship' between the server registered to Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, Slate reported.

The Trump server was set up in a curious way, refusing pings from the rest of the world and handling only a small amount of traffic, the researchers said.

It had been created in 2009 and at first sent out mass emails during marketing campaigns.

But by the time Tea Leaves found the server, it received so few communications it was hard to justify its existence, and 87 percent of the traffic involved Alfa Bank's two servers, Slate reported.

Alfa Bank founder, Ukraine native Mikhail Fridman (pictured), is now the second richest man in Russia and is worth $15.3billion according to Forbes

Alfa Bank denied any connection with Trump and said Fridman (pictured left shaking Putin's hand) does not have and has not had any contact with Trump or his organizations

Fridman collaborated with economist Pyotr Aven (pictured shaking Putin's hand). Aven and Fridman 'have assumed an unforeseen level of prominence and influence in the economic and political affairs of their nation,' according the US District Court for the District of Columbia

'The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion. The operative word is secretive. This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project,' internet pioneer and DNS author Paul Vixie told Slate.

It is unclear whether the servers actually exchanged email. The traces of communications could come from spam or redirected mail.

'I'm seeing a preponderance of the evidence, but not a smoking gun,' one scientist told Slate.

But cyber-security researcher Richard Clayton, who has reviewed the evidence, believes mail is more likely. Computer Scientist Nicholas Weaver told Slate that assuming the DNS logs are authentic, 'they do indicate effectively human-level communication'.

Conversations between the Trump server and Alfa Bank peaked during important moments of the election, such as the Republican and Democratic conventions, according to Tea Leaves and his colleagues.

Alfa Bank was founded in 1990 and emerged in the post-Soviet era. Its founder, Ukraine native Mikhail Fridman, is now the second richest man in Russia and is worth $15.3billion according to Forbes.

Fridman collaborated with economist Pyotr Aven. Both 'have assumed an unforeseen level of prominence and influence in the economic and political affairs of their nation', the US District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in 2005 while dismissing a libel lawsuit filed by the two men.

Hillary Clinton brought up connections between Donald Trump's associates and Russia – on a day when her campaign complained of a 'double standard' by the FBI in what it has revealed about its investigations

Alfa's top men, according to a former US government official who knows Fridman, were like 'judo pals' with Vladimir Putin.

'They were always worried about where they stood in the pecking order and always feared expropriation,' the official told Slate.

Alfa Bank has invested in companies in foreign companies, including Uber, to which it gave $200million in February.

New York Times reporters Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers began looking into the Trump server in September, according to Slate.

Lichtblau spoke to an Alfa Bank representative based in Washington that month. Shortly after, the Trump server stopped functioning.

This, according to the computer scientists, is a sign that the server was shut down.

A new host name was created for the Trump server four days later, meaning the communications through that server could resume, Slate reported.

The first attempt to communicate with the newly-named server came from Alfa Bank. There is no way to look up a server that has been renamed - meaning someone must have known the Trump server's new name.

'That party had to have some kind of outbound message through SMS, phone, or some noninternet channel they used to communicate [the new configuration],' Vixie told Slate.

Communications between the servers stopped completely not long afterwards.

A former intelligence officer and Russian counterintelligence specialist told Mother Jones in a story published Friday that Moscow has tried to co-opt Trump for years.

The former spy said he had considered the evidence he amassed 'sufficiently serious' to share it with the FBI.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday sent FBI Director James Comey a letter about Trump's possible ties to Russia.

'In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government,' Reid wrote.

'The public has a right to know this information.'

Hillary Clinton tweeted on Monday evening: 'It's time for Trump to answer serious questions about his ties to Russia' followed by a link to Slate's story about the server

Alfa Bank denied any connection with Trump.

'Alfa hired Mandiant, one of the world's foremost cyber security experts, to investigate and it has found nothing to the allegations,' the bank wrote.

'Neither Alfa Bank nor its principals, including Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, have or have had any contact with Mr Trump or his organizations. Fridman and Aven have never met Mr Trump nor have they or Alfa Bank had any business dealings with him.

'Neither Alfa nor its officers have sent Mr. Trump or his organizations any emails, information or money. Alfa Bank does not have and has never had any special or exclusive internet connection with Mr. Trump or his entities. The assertion of a special or private link is patently false.'

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied any communication with Alfa Bank or Russia.

'The email server, set up for marketing purposes and operated by a third-party, has not been used since 2010. The current traffic on the server from Alphabank's [sic] IP address is regular DNS server traffic—not email traffic,' she told Slate.

'To be clear, The Trump Organization is not sending or receiving any communications from this email server. The Trump Organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or any Russian entity.'

Hillary Clinton tweeted on Monday: 'It's time for Trump to answer serious questions about his ties to Russia' and linked to Slate's story.

'This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,' her campaign's policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

'This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking Trump's ties to Russia. It certainly seems the Trump Organization felt it had something to hide, given that it apparently took steps to conceal the link when it was discovered by journalists.