Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday May 06 2017, @11:59AM   Printer-friendly

The campaign staff of Emmanuel Macron, one of the two candidates in France's presidential election run-off, claim to have been targeted by a massive hacking operation that leaked sensitive documents:

On the eve of the most consequential French presidential election in decades, the staff of the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron said late Friday that the campaign had been targeted by a "massive and coordinated" hacking operation, one with the potential to destabilize the nation's democracy before voters go to the polls on Sunday.

The digital attack, which involved a dump of campaign documents including emails and accounting records, emerged hours before a legal prohibition on campaign communications went into effect. While the leak may be of little consequence, the timing makes it extremely difficult for Mr. Macron to mitigate any damaging fallout before the runoff election, in which he faces the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who has pledged to pull France out of the euro and hold a referendum to leave the European Union.

French authorities recently arrested a suspect who admitted to attacking the campaign website for the other candidate, Marine Le Pen.

Also at the Washington Post, CNN, BBC, and Reuters.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @02:44PM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @02:44PM (#505428)

    Oh these leaks, oh these evil leaks. The problem is that you found out by these leaks, not my wrongdoing. When will you plebs understand that! Now fake media will tell you that the leaked contents are fake and you must believe them because they have patent rights to truth from the Ministerium. These bad Russians did this because I have not pissed off a lot of my countrymen.

    Now we can all pretend it didn't happen because leaks is just a social construction. And ignorance is knowledge!

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=4, Overrated=1, Total=5
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Sulla on Saturday May 06 2017, @03:28PM (9 children)

    by Sulla (5173) on Saturday May 06 2017, @03:28PM (#505441) Journal

    I really wish that poor people could use this as a defence in court too
    Judge: You stand accused of drunk driving and neglegent homicide
    Person: Yeah but you didn't know about it until someone leaked my car's computer records
    Judge: Oh well then nevermind, case dismissed

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @05:19PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @05:19PM (#505485)

      I really wish that poor people could use this as a defence in court too

      It literally is a defense in court.

      Its called "fruit of the poisonous tree." [wikipedia.org]

      You might say, "that's not the same, that only applies when someone acts on behalf of law enforcement."
      Well, if LePen's campaign coordinated in any way with these people - not just knowing about the hack but simply working with them in any way [euobserver.com], then that is the same thing.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:48PM (7 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:48PM (#505503)

        You might say, "that's not the same, that only applies when someone acts on behalf of law enforcement." Well, if LePen's campaign coordinated in any way with these people - not just knowing about the hack but simply working with them in any way, then that is the same thing.

        Not if your wiki link is to be believed:

        In certain cases continental European countries have similar laws (e.g. in cases of torture), while the doctrine itself is generally not known. Illegally obtained evidence is used by the courts to ensure that the judgment is factually correct, however the person obtaining the illegal evidence typically faces independent consequences.

        An amateur posted some fake documents on /pol/ just before the last TV debate. These were easily debunked by the fact the pdf's consisted of separate layers. Le Pen obviously heard the early rumours and referenced it in a televised debate while Macron threatens to sue for defamation. Then, hours before French law prohibits campaigning prior to an election we get an actual email leak. Marcon confirms and says the emails are mixed with fakes, how could he possibly know that in advance? [twimg.com] Did he leak the trove himself or does he just have staffers on standby to write fake emails about "masturbating to sink noises"?

        Anyone?

        • (Score: 2, Troll) by Sulla on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:13PM

          by Sulla (5173) on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:13PM (#505531) Journal

          It was probably the traditional "everything that doesn't support my claim is fake news".

          I imagine he learned it from the book "Everyone I don't like is a Russian hacker, a child's guide to avoiding responsibility" by HRC.

          This post is fake news.

          --
          Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:55PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:55PM (#505548)

          > Not if your wiki link is to be believed:

          Sorry, I didn't realize we were only talking about european courts.
          Since we are writing in english on a website that is primarily american I thought we were talking about english common law, not continental.

          > Anyone?

          Sounds like you've got yourself a great conspiracy.
          I wonder why the news isn't talking about such an obvious give away?
          Must be because the media is in on the conspiracy.
          Or you can't read french and are just parroting some bullshit you found on the derpweb.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @09:55PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @09:55PM (#505571)

            Sorry, I didn't realize we were only talking about european courts.

            Well, much as I hate to be the one to break this to you; France is in Europe!

            Since we are writing in english on a website that is primarily american I thought we were talking about english common law, not continental.

            So your inference is that any investigation concerning an election in France should be conducted according to US or English common law?

            Sounds like you've got yourself a great conspiracy.
            I wonder why the news isn't talking about such an obvious give away?

            I wonder... [france24.com]

            Or you can't read french and are just parroting some bullshit you found on the derpweb.

            I can understand enough to get the bits about binge watching Doctor Who and masturbating. [twimg.com] I also question why incriminating metadata has been inserted left into the documents. [twitter.com] Guess it's just all a personal, whacked-out conspiracy theory tho?

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @01:59AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @01:59AM (#505663)

              Well, much as I hate to be the one to break this to you; France is in Europe!

              Your dogged insistence on an unrelated fact suggests you aren't so much interested in informative discussion as in personal validation.

              All your rando non-sequitur links suggest a tenuous grip on reality.

              Please go masturbate in private.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:25AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:25AM (#505774)

                In your own words:

                1. if LePen's campaign coordinated in any way with these people
                2. Sorry, I didn't realize we were only talking about european courts.
                3. Your dogged insistence on an unrelated fact

                Remarkable. Have you ever been formally diagnosed with BDP?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @05:24AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @05:24AM (#505730)

          The expensive business copy/print/scan/fax
          machines generate some pretty insane PDF files.
          Given text over a blurry colorful background
          scene, the machines will create two layers.
          The background is compressed as a color image,
          having had the text kind of interpolated away.
          The text is on-the-fly turned into a custom font.
          BTW, this is the source of the Xerox bug that
          was changing numbers in documents when run on
          a high compression setting.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:41AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:41AM (#505778)

            Does not explain the fakery in this case, take a look for yourself. The only piece of text lacking jpeg compression artefacts is the first name in the handwritten signature. [france24.com] Would an OCR process not have detected a monospace sans first?

  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday May 07 2017, @02:09AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Sunday May 07 2017, @02:09AM (#505672) Journal

    I'm going to assume that you're being sarcastic. I'm also going to assume that the "wrongdoing" you're referring to is not the break-in, but something Mr. Macron or his party supposedly did that has come to light because of this attack. The article says:

    “It will take to time to sift through it all, but at first glance, they seem to be utterly mundane,” Numerama said after analyzing the data.

    Assuming some of the leaked documents are real, En Marche! (Macron's party) should have taken better care of its data. Are you saying that that rises to the level of "wrongdoing"? If not, what's the wrongdoing on the part of En Marche! or Macron?