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Macron Campaign Says It Was Target of ‘Massive’ Hacking Attack
- hartator 9y agoI 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.
- libeclipse 9y agoIt's scary to think that a teenager at home could setup something more resilient to attack than many of these important systems. Like wow.
- jacquesm 9y agoWhat 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.
- libeclipse 9y agoSorry, your point may be valid but I don't see how it relates to my comment.
- jacquesm 9y agoThe point is that any teenager can likely get into your house, burglarize you or murder you. You could go and live in a vault, but that would take the fun out of living and so as a society we have dealt with this by making this illegal and the chances of getting caught are large enough that people tend to not do those things. But if the chances of getting caught were near zero you might have to go and live in a vault.
- libeclipse 9y agoThat's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about how teenagers can build systems resilient against these attacks, not that they carry out the attacks themselves. (Although I conjecture that a significant proportion of these attacks are also carried out by teenagers.)
- jacquesm 9y agoIt goes both ways doesn't it? Whether teenagers can set up a system more resilient than your average systems administrator is something that I doubt anyway. Most teenagers could not hack their way out of a wet paper bag, but then there are some that totally blow your mind. Just like with older folks. Age does not have much to do with it.
- empath75 9y agoIf 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.
- libeclipse 9y agoIf 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 9y agoSure, 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 9y agoSomething setup at home would likely have a much smaller attack surface. Apples and oranges.
- libeclipse 9y agoI 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.
- libeclipse 9y agoI wonder if by "hacking" they mean social engineering.
- a3n 9y agoThey mean the vague superset. No one checks with HN on terminology.
- rosalinekarr 9y agoWikiLeaks has already identified several files in the leaks containing [Cyrillic tags in their metadata.][1] [1]: https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860855087165571073 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860855087165571073
- douche 9y agoAt 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 9y agoEither way, whether planted deliberately or left there by accident, it shows that at least those files are definitely fake.
- methehack 9y agoI agree with you the meta data could mean nothing. But "noise"? More likely you're a paid troll.
- douche 9y agoI wish somebody was paying me...
- ocschwar 9y agoIt 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 9y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvj0v0W6yjk&feature=youtu.be&t=255 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvj0v0W6yjk&feature=youtu.be...
- sortaThrowaway 9y agoFrom wikileaks: French media warned not to publish https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860841351595921409 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860841351595921409 No fakes that we see https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860638153471918081 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860638153471918081 Timing curious https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860603123236315137 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/860603123236315137
- raverbashing 9y agoWikiLeaks is not neutral
- isaac_is_goat 9y agoWikiLeaks also a 100% track record of being correct. Biases accounted for, they are accurate.
- altcognito 9y agoThey routinely make claims not supported by the evidence they have. They retweeted the pizza child trafficking garbage, made up facts about redirecting responsibility for attacks.
- seattle_spring 9y agoThis, exactly. They defend their claims by saying, "we're just asking the questions." There are tons (thousands, I would argue) of innocent victims who are put in the crosshairs because of WikiLeaks' agenda.
- RealityVoid 9y ago> They retweeted the pizza child trafficking garbage, Please, dear god, tell me you're kidding and no sane person is taking that theory seriously.
- 9y ago
- alrs 9y agoIt's well-timed, if the goal is to have Macron stagger into office as seriously damaged goods.
- rrggrr 9y agoThis is correct. The goal is not to elect La Penne.
- a3n 9y agoYeah, 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).
- xbryanx 9y agoThere would have to be a seriously large polling error. Much bigger than the Trump margin. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/le-pen-is-just-a-gargantuan-polling-error-behind-macron/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/le-pen-is-just-a-gargan...
- sergiotapia 9y agoGood. 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 https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MacronLeaks&src=tyah The propaganda machine is supporting Macron outright: http://i.imgur.com/rDppmI3.jpg http://i.imgur.com/rDppmI3.jpg Call this karma.
- altcognito 9y agoYes, vote for the candidate the totalitarian is supporting, that's always worked out for the best.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- yladiz 9y agoBy 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.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bananaoomarang 9y agoThe ‘propaganda machine’ is supporting Macron because the alternative (Le Pen) is terrifying.
- briandear 9y agoShe'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.)
- isaac_is_goat 9y agoCorrine 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.
- jumanchiss 9y agoGood ol' Confirmation Bias.
- hkon 9y agoHow does it apply here?
- mrleiter 9y agoYou are seeking to confirm that there is a targeted attack on Macron and his movement. En Marché has been hacked recently, Wikileaks published it. Now one of his campaign leaders, 50 year old woman who helped him with everything regarding privacy and surveillance, dies. Then concluding from this that it cannot be conincidence is what is known as confirmation bias. Seeking to confirm one's pre-formed hypothesis.
- hkon 9y agoThanks.
- geofft 9y 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?
- retox 9y ago>yes we said it >but we didn't want you to know we said it
- sortaThrowaway 9y agoWill 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 9y agoSo 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.
- jumanchiss 9y agoNo need to worry guys, the pro-establishment bilderberg/Rothschild puppet will be elected as the next French president.
- a3n 9y agoI 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 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_regime_change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
- zzzcpan 9y agoLe Pen is openly supported by Russia, just like most right-wing parties in the EU. And it's been like this for years.
- bsaul 9y agoWhat 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.
- alwayshappens 9y agohere comes tptacek and the wikileaks-smear brigade
- dang 9y agoWe've banned this account for trolling. Please don't create accounts to break the HN guidelines with. Doing so eventually gets your main account banned as well.
- imjustsaying 9y agoThe 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.
- ryanmarsh 9y agoThis 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.
- xbryanx 9y agoI'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?
- ryanmarsh 9y agoI have no idea. My guess would be no. It sure would be nice if we were trying harder though.
- fictioncircle 9y agoThe 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 9y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14277346 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14277346