Macron Campaign Says It Was Target of ‘Massive’ Hacking Attack

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/world/europe/france-macron-hacking.html

by gerbilly • 9 years ago

53 89 9 years ago

hartator• 9 years ago

I wonder if anyone had time to dig in?

It seems to have conflicted reports on the Internet about how important it is and if some documents were in fact faked as alleged by the Macron campaign at least in the first time. The french media blackout to follow election rules doesn't seem to help.

libeclipse6• 9 years ago

It's scary to think that a teenager at home could setup something more resilient to attack than many of these important systems.

Like wow.

jacquesm3• 9 years ago

What is so surprising about that? Societies operate largely on trust. Once you throw that out of the window you can do all kinds of things but you will mostly likely end up being found out and ostracized or jailed.

Just like any idiot with a kitchen knife can walk into a shopping mall and kill people hacking email accounts and servers is quite doable. The only reason it keeps on happening is because it is hard to catch the perpetrators.

libeclipse6• 9 years ago

Sorry, your point may be valid but I don't see how it relates to my comment.

empath75• 9 years ago

If you are the target of a foreign intelligence service, you are going to be hacked, end of story. There is very little you can do to protect yourself from a threat like that over time.

libeclipse6• 9 years ago

If you look into most high-profile hacks, you see that their opsec and security practices were weak.

You don't see Amazon or Stripe being hacked all the time, and they are certainly large enough targets.

sanderjd• 9 years ago

Sure, but if I'm a major candidate in a national election, perhaps I should be protected by my domestic intelligence service. This is what I don't understand: why aren't we playing defense? Why isn't it a huge embarrassment to the Secret Service (in the US) or another defense agency when a campaign under their protection is successfully attacked like this? I would love to see the Russia investigations in the US Congress add a focus on bolstering defenses, rather than just doling out blame. The same should go for France and elsewhere. Cyber-defense is an arms race, but it's a battle that can and should be fought. Surely this is something all parties can agree on!

NegativeLatency• 9 years ago

Something setup at home would likely have a much smaller attack surface. Apples and oranges.

libeclipse6• 9 years ago

I didn't mean to imply that the system itself would be setup at home.

My point is that loads of kids have the knowledge and common sense to create something that would be more secure against attacks than many professional, corporate or political systems.

libeclipse6• 9 years ago

I wonder if by "hacking" they mean social engineering.

a3n3• 9 years ago

They mean the vague superset. No one checks with HN on terminology.

rosalinekarr4• 9 years ago

WikiLeaks has already identified several files in the leaks containing [Cyrillic tags in their metadata.][1]

[1] https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860855087165571073

douche2• 9 years ago

At this point, I'm not sure that's indicative of anything. With all of this The Russians are coming! noise that's been spewed out over the past year, it strikes me as the first thing you'd do to deflect casual attention would be to plant some Cyrillic text in a place that looks suspicious.

pilsetnieks• 9 years ago

Either way, whether planted deliberately or left there by accident, it shows that at least those files are definitely fake.

methehack2• 9 years ago

I agree with you the meta data could mean nothing.

But "noise"? More likely you're a paid troll.

ocschwar• 9 years ago

It indicates very clearly that the leaker is editing Word documents before releasing them, since French Word users are not going to use Cyrillic.

And it shows the leaker is not uber-competent.

So, if an email from Macron looks too depraved to be real, it probably is.

StreamBright• 9 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvj0v0W6yjk&feature=youtu.be...

sortaThrowaway2• 9 years ago

From wikileaks:

French media warned not to publish https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860841351595921409

No fakes that we see https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860638153471918081

Timing curious https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860603123236315137

raverbashing• 9 years ago

WikiLeaks is not neutral

isaac_is_goat2• 9 years ago

WikiLeaks also a 100% track record of being correct. Biases accounted for, they are accurate.

civilian• 9 years ago

But they are neutral! It's like running into an Elemental Ice Golem. It's not good or evil, it's not left or right. It is just made of ice. WikiLeaks is an Elemental Truth & Leaks Golem. It doesn't give a shit whose agenda it helps, it just wants to expose more.

I would rather have a WikiLeaks that release everything that it can receives, rather than one that curates it's leaks for an agenda.

methehack2• 9 years ago

Perhaps less controversially, the whole non-editorial editorial policy is super-vulnerable to manipulation. The source can stick anything they want into the stream since WikiLeaks' stated editorial policy is "that's not our job." Garbage in, garbage out.

If you've got bullshit that you want to look real, stick it in the middle of real shit and get WikiLeaks to leak it. Proof!

[minor edit for grammar]

rosalinekarr4• 9 years ago

The parent comment is cherrypicking tweets from WikiLeaks. Take a look at [their actual feed][1]. They have since [discounted several conspiracy theories against Macron][2] and [brought into question the legitimacy of some of the files][3].

[1] https://twitter.com/wikileaks/with_replies

[2] https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860846823229059072

[3] https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860855087165571073

xbryanx3• 9 years ago

"assessment update: several Office files have Cyrillic meta data." https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860855087165571073

chasing4• 9 years ago

WikiLeaks is not journalism.

alrs• 9 years ago

It's well-timed, if the goal is to have Macron stagger into office as seriously damaged goods.

rrggrr• 9 years ago

This is correct. The goal is not to elect La Penne.

a3n3• 9 years ago

Yeah, and Trump's victory surprised everyone, including Russia and Trump. Electing Le Pen may not be the goal, but it could happen (I'm not familar with French elections).

sergiotapia• 9 years ago

Good. This good old boys club of insiders is not good for the average person.

Research who is funding these people. Research what they do when they think no one is looking. Figure out who the media is pushing for, and vote the complete opposite.

Twitter is actively supressing the #MacronLeaks hashtag. https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MacronLeaks&src=tyah

The propaganda machine is supporting Macron outright: http://i.imgur.com/rDppmI3.jpg

Call this karma.

altcognito2• 9 years ago

Yes, vote for the candidate the totalitarian is supporting, that's always worked out for the best.

yladiz• 9 years ago

By your logic, since the media seems to be pushing for Marcon, do you prefer Le Pen instead?

Edit: Since I saw you replied to this post that you do support Le Pen, and think she is best for the French people: Are you French, and if so, why do you think she is best? I'm not French, so I'm curious.

bananaoomarang• 9 years ago

The ‘propaganda machine’ is supporting Macron because the alternative (Le Pen) is terrifying.

briandear• 9 years ago

She's more terrifying to Parisians and non-French in my experience. I live in the south of France and in my encounters more people here seemed to fear Melanchon -- especially small business owners who, in my very unscientific polling preferred Fillon by a large margin. Taxes and regulations really crush independent business growth -- that's a bigger immediate issue than the immigration boogeyman or the EU. However, I want to stress this is just my own unscientific polling/conversations with people in my area (the Luberon specifically.)

geofft5• 9 years ago

The propaganda machine, as you call it, may be supporting Macron outright.

But the hacking machine is supporting Le Pen outright.

Who is funding the hacking machine? Why has only one candidate's emails been hacked? And why does this sound very similar to the 2016 US election, when only one candidate's emails were hacked?

In the US we know full well that the two parties are effectively the same in terms of corruption and back-room dealing. I'm guessing the same is true in France. How do we know what the "good old boys club" is doing if we only see half of that club? How can we fairly figure out what "these people" are doing if we only see the sordid details of some of these people?

flatline• 9 years ago

Do you really think le Pen is different in this regard? I mean, look at her dad. It boggled my mind during the US election that people thought the Republicans were not up to all the same dirty tricks just because their emails were not leaked. When there is asymmetrical information, I'd be very hesitant to form sweeping opinions.

isaac_is_goat2• 9 years ago

Corrine Erhel, Macron's person for everything dealing with surveillance, digital control and the like, dies suddenly of a heart attack yesterday. She dies the same evening the Macron leaks are released. Coincidence?

Considering the parallels with the USA 2016 election, and the murder of Seth Rich - I don't think so.

jumanchiss2• 9 years ago

Good ol' Confirmation Bias.

hkon2• 9 years ago

How does it apply here?

geofft5• 9 years ago

the murder of Seth Rich

Seth Rich was killed by inner-city violence. Quoting our President: "Our inner cities are a disaster. You get shot walking to the store." "We'll get rid of the crime. You'll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Right now, you walk down the street, you get shot. Look at the statistics."

Given the fact that you can't walk around America's inner cities without getting shot, any more conspiratorial explanation for Seth Rich's death just doesn't seem necessary. Or was our esteemed president wrong about inner-city violence?

neuralk4• 9 years ago

This is a verifiably false comment that I hope was written from ignorance and not something else.

Seth Rich was not killed by "inner-city violence." He was killed by an unknown assailant, presumably in a mugging but it is again unknown. It was also not in the inner city, but in the Bloomingdale neighborhood which is rather nice and you can read about it here [1].

Given the fact that you can't walk around America's inner cities without getting shot

Again, this is far from what I'd call a "fact" and is rather ignorant. Plenty of people live and work in inner cities across America without ever being shot or shooting someone. Your bizarre appeal to authority with quoting Obama doesn't have any bearing in reality. Seth Rich's murder may have been, and likely was, a random act of violence. But that does not justify the assertions of your comment.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/08/12/heres-w...

chasing4• 9 years ago

What parallels with Seth Rich? That they both passed away during an election?

rtx2• 9 years ago

Or allegedly killed by their bosses.

retox• 9 years ago

yes we said it
but we didn't want you to know we said it

sortaThrowaway2• 9 years ago

Will a more qualified woman be passed over for a less qualified man, yet again?

Probably as these leaks are about 4 days to late.

agumonkey• 9 years ago

So far it's not gaining a lot of momentum. And beside a large phoning campaign that is a bit low, I didn't see anything really nasty or even controversial. Nothing like paying your bodyguard as a parliament aid while he never landed foot in said parliament or your office.

Time will tell.

jumanchiss2• 9 years ago

No need to worry guys, the pro-establishment bilderberg/Rothschild puppet will be elected as the next French president.

a3n3• 9 years ago

I think probably the Russians, since not many Western countries trust them anyway and so not much to lose, lots to gain.

Or it could have been the US (I'm American). The US administration likes LePen and nationalism.

"According to the study, the U.S. intervened in 81 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000, while the Soviet Union or Russia intervened in 36." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_electoral_intervention

And if that doesn't work, sometimes we just overthrow countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...

zzzcpan• 9 years ago

Le Pen is openly supported by Russia, just like most right-wing parties in the EU. And it's been like this for years.

bsaul• 9 years ago

What people may not realize is that we have a complete renewal of the parliament in less than two month, and if macron doesn't have a majority, then his prime minister may very well end up being a political opponent.

Rigging or trying to influence french elections would mean rigging four votes over the course of two months ( not even counting primaries inside political parties, each with two turns), which seems a bit unlikely to happen. I'd say our system is pretty secure in that matter.

imjustsaying• 9 years ago

The downvote brigade is out in full force here again.

The upvote/downvote forum experiment doesn't work for political topics (which everything has an element of), it just results in censorship of non-status quo opinions.

ryanmarsh2• 9 years ago

This is the new normal, also I'm glad this is happening. Here's why: perhaps this is what it takes to get politicians to take security seriously. Once enough elections have been won/lost because of security breaches in consumer products and commercial networks surely we should start to see consumer protection agencies given charter to protect consumers and bring suits against companies for mishandling breaches or gross negligence.

xbryanx3• 9 years ago

I'm not a security expert so this is a serious question.

Do you think there's a way to take security seriously enough to successfully defend against state-sponsored hacking? Is it simply inevitable that this sort of hacking leak will happen, or is this leak likely the result of some low-hanging fruit security tips being ignored?

ryanmarsh2• 9 years ago

I have no idea. My guess would be no. It sure would be nice if we were trying harder though.

fictioncircle• 9 years ago

The problem is the politician's kneejerk response is to reduce security by introducing backdoors. (See the legislation they actually try to pass)

They don't do what you suggest they should.

sctb• 9 years ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14277346

Macron Campaign Says It Was Target of ‘Massive’ Hacking Attack

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