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Days Before Election: Macron Campaign Says It Is the Victim of Massive, Coordinated Hacking Campaign (cnbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the here-we-go-again dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: A large trove of emails from the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was posted online late on Friday, a little more than a day before voters go to the polls to choose the country's next president in a run-off against far-right rival Marine Le Pen. Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or whether the emails were genuine. In a statement, Macron's political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked. "The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information," the statement said. In its statement on Friday, En Marche! said that the documents released online only showed the normal functioning of a presidential campaign, but that authentic documents had been mixed on social media with fake ones to sow "doubt and misinformation." "The seriousness of this event is certain and we shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk," it added.

15 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Putin at it again? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 4, Informative

    So far as I can see, it's no big secret that Putin would like to destabilize the EU, especially NATO countries, because a weak EU/NATO means it's easier for him to implement his long-term agenda.

    1. Re:Putin at it again? by parallel_prankster · · Score: 3, Informative

      They funny thing is Le Penn has also filed a complaint about hacking by the "extreme left"! So whether that is supposed to attack the credibility of Macron's accusations or add to them, we dont know.

    2. Re: Putin at it again? by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So you don't think Russia has something to gain by a pack of Euroskeptics taking over major European countries? And this is hardly the first accusation laid against Russia in this regard.

      Just how many of these hacks are going to have to happen before we all finally admit that Moscow is still the enemy of the West, that where it has no hope in hell of over economically or militarily dominating the Western alliance, it can try destabilize Western countries and the alliance itself.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:Putin at it again? by mjwx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They funny thing is Le Penn has also filed a complaint about hacking by the "extreme left"! So whether that is supposed to attack the credibility of Macron's accusations or add to them, we dont know.

      The thing is, the extreme left... or the left in general don't have a candidate in this election. Marcon is centre right (he's a banker), Le Pen is extreme right.

      France is centre right leaning in general though, so I expect this to be a victory for Marcon, sadly not enough of a victory to put Front National out of its misery.

      I wouldn't trust anything coming out of Le Pen to be accurate or grounded in reality. She's basically following Trumps strategy of attacking her opponent instead of announcing policy but in a far less competent manner (yes, I didn't think it was possible either).

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    4. Re:Putin at it again? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "She's basically following Trumps strategy of attacking her opponent..."

      Thereby becoming the first political candidate in history to do so.

    5. Re: Putin at it again? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Russia has a lot of useful idiots in the West. Some, I think, just don't want to admit the candidate or political movement they favor is either the unwitting beneficiary of Russian hacking "largess", or, potentially much more sinister, is actively courting it. I view these people as just a more brainless breed of partisan. But I do think there are some who are actually rather sympathetic to Russia, who admire the more autocratic leanings of the current Russian government. The latter, when they gain positions of influence, while they may not be out and out agents or moles, are still fairly dangerous.

      Le Pen's political movement, in particular, has historically pro-Fascist leanings, and most certainly views Russia in a fairly friendly light.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re: Putin at it again? by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Informative

      Russia has a lot of useful idiots in the West. Some, I think, just don't want to admit the candidate or political movement they favor is either the unwitting beneficiary of Russian hacking "largess", or, potentially much more sinister, is actively courting it. I view these people as just a more brainless breed of partisan. But I do think there are some who are actually rather sympathetic to Russia, who admire the more autocratic leanings of the current Russian government. The latter, when they gain positions of influence, while they may not be out and out agents or moles, are still fairly dangerous.

      Le Pen's political movement, in particular, has historically pro-Fascist leanings, and most certainly views Russia in a fairly friendly light.

      Front National and Le Pen is officially endorsed and financially supported by Putin. and officially endorse Putin back.The favourable light is official

  2. Re:Well it can't be the Russsians by mi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Of course, they do — financed by Russia Le Pen wants to lift sanctions against Kremlin and endorsed Crimea "occupendum" as a legitimate transfer of Ukraine's land to Russia.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  3. What a tremendous success! by DonaId+Trump · · Score: 5, Funny

    Julian, if you're listening, the check is in the mail. It's a bigly check, believe me. You're a great guy, many people are saying you're the greatest person to witness the Civil War. We're going to make the best prison pen pals, believe me.

  4. Re:How is "Democracy at risk"? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How is Democracy at risk over this? Does not "information want to be free"? Is not it good that voters know more about the candidate, than less?

    It's good if the information is accurate. The problem here is that misinformation has been mixed in with the information. When people are misinformed, they make poor choices.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Re:Well it can't be the Russsians by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was about to make a joke about your mixed metaphor "horse in this fight", only to discover that horse fighting is apparently a real thing.

    --
    "He's a liar whose lawyer is lying about his lying lawyer's lies."
  6. Re:No impact by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Macron is still the favorite, so yes, this may come too late to influence the election, but in the longer term I think Western nations are going to have get used to, and find ways to deal with this tactic. This new form of propaganda cyberwarfare has allowed Russia to punch considerably above its weight, and time and time again we're seeing the goal here is to disrupt the Western alliance. It's certainly not a guaranteed win, as it now seems that Russia's alleged interference in the US election is likely backfiring, and forcing Trump to take a harder line, not to mention that despite Fox News and the Republicans best attempts to bury the news, the investigation into Russian ties to Trump's campaign are ongoing.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  7. Re:Well it can't be the Russsians by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Informative

    They don't have a horse i this fight.

    Le Pen wins, the entire EU will likely collapse. The Russians don't have a horse in this fight. They have the whole barn and every living create in it in this fight.

  8. Who is this hacker 4-chan? by Xenographic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > Has it been? Citations?

    This is one of those non-denial denials. They use the statement to sow doubt about all of the documents, while leaving themselves an out when any docs are later verified. The last time someone claimed that, it was Donna Brazille. My past comments go into great detail, down to posting the DKIM keys and how to obtain them, as to why her statement could be proven mathematically false with a key from Hillary's own DNS server. Given that this confirms there are real documents out there, the onus should be put on the deniers to identify which items are fake.

    It's fascinating how the media is only now catching up to this. It's also fascinating that nobody has bothered to show people where they might be obtained: http://archive.is/eQtrm

  9. Re:No impact by Tailhook · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's not bad enough yet. The French indulge their delusions more thoroughly than you may appreciate. They're not going to shift gears until some mufti is mounting the heads of infidels on the Arc De Triomphe.

    Le Pen had the best line of the campaign so far; France will be led by a woman — either me or Merkel.

    --
    Maw! Fire up the karma burner!