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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.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday May 06 2017, @10:38PM (3 children)
France has a more sensible situation, where the lead two candidates after round 1 (if nobody gets 50%) get through to round 2. This allows the public to vote for their favoured candidate without worrying about sabotaging the normal one.
There were 4 or 5 candidates with a good shot in round 1, and another half-dozen on the paper. In this case there were two crazies on the round 1 ballot that had a good chance, so it could have been bad with a choice between Le Pen and Melenchon into round two, but either way it's better than the spoiler effect we so often see. The US should consider doing something similar to break this crazy two-party divide-and-conquer system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @11:01PM
Fixed with help from a guy from Sheffield in the UK. He's a former toilet cleaner which, no matter if you agree with his positions or not, is an undeniably excellent qualification for political commentary. You're welcome ;)
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday May 07 2017, @01:03AM (1 child)
Isn't it funny that the first argument raised against changing the US electoral system is cost?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @02:06AM
You mean how you were the first and only person to raise any argument against changing the US electoral system?
Yeah, funny you mentioned it.